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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



Evenings With the Master 



<B. H. <Brun, 



runer 




CHRISTIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION 

2704-14 PINE STREET ST. LOUIS, MO. 






Copyright, 1920 

Christian Board of Publication 

St. Louis, Mo. 



JUN 20 192! 



©CU617411 



i dedicate: this uttee book to my 

SISTER BLANCHE, THROUGH WHOSE 

SACRIFICE AND INTEREST I WAS EN- 

ABIDED TO GO TO COLLEGE. 



IN THE COOL OF THE EVENING 

IN the cool of the evening, when the low sweet whis- 
pers waken, 
When the laborers turn them homeward, and the 
weary have their will, 
When the censers of the roses o'er the forest-aisles are 
shaken, 
Is it but the wind that cometh o'er the far green hill? 

For they say 'tis but the sunset winds that wander 
through the heather, 
Rustle all the meadow-grass and bend the dewy fern; 
They say 'tis but the winds that bow the reeds in prayer 
together, 
And fill the shaken pools with fire along the shadowy 
burn. 

In the beauty of the twilight, in the Garden that He 
loveth, 
They have veiled His lovely vesture with the dark- 
ness of a name! 
Thro' His Garden, thro' His Garden, it is but the wind 
that moveth, 
No more ; but O, the miracle, the miracle is the same ! 

In the cool of the evening, when the sky is an old story 
Slowly dying, but remembered, ay, and loved with 
passion still, 
Hush! * * * the fringes of His garment, in the fad- 
ing golden glory, 
Softly rustling as He cometh o'er the far green hill. 

— Alfred Noyes. 



INTBODUCTION 

The chapters in this book had their be- 
ginning in a desire to interpret the life and 
teaching of Jesus Christ to the men in our 
army. While the author was in Camp Tay- 
lor serving as Eeligious Work Director 
for the Y. M. C. A. they were prepared as 
a series of talks to men and delivered in 
a week's vesper services in one of the " Y" 
buildings, under the title, ' ' Evenings With 
The Master, Introducing Him to Men." 
They were also delivered in two different 
"Y" buildings in Camp Meade while the 
author was serving there as chaplain in the 
army. 

The most urgent need of the men in our 
army was for a simple interpretation of 
the great truths of Christianity. Jesus' 
greatest teaching comes from his conver- 
sations, for his so-called sermons were re- 
ally conversations. The method of ap- 
proach is that of interpreting these con- 
versations. This method appealed to the 
men. The conviction has grown upon the 
author since the end of the war that 
this same kind of teaching is greatly 
needed in our churches. The men we met 
in the camps were the same men we are 

5 



6 Introduction 

meeting now. They simply r nted a 

cross-section of the average life of Amer- 
ica. In this conviction the talks were ex- 
panded into their present form. 

The subjects dealt with are not treated 
in an exhaustive manner. This is imp 

lie within the space limits. However, 
they are meant to be suggestive, and it is 
hoped that some of the lines of thought 
may be carried further by the reader. For 
the most part the quotations from the New 
Testament which are used throughout the 

:k. are from Dr. Moffatt's translation. 
Th :t is greatly indebted to a num- 

r of friends for suggestions, and espe- 

ally to Mrs. Brunei*. Her constructive 
criticisms o an inspiration in their 

I in all of the author's 
work. It has been a 1 1 privilege 

attempt to lead men and women nearer 
the Master in these simple discussions, and 
it is hoped that they m: ve helpful as 

the; at to reach a larger audience. 

B. H. Bra- -a- 

Study, Hamilton Avenue Christian Church, 
31 Louis, Mo.. July 30, 1920. 



CONTENTS 

I. An Evening With a Scholar. . . 9 
II. An Evening in Practical Service 29 

III. An Evening Alone With the Fa- 

ther 45 

IV. An Evening in the Storm .... 63 

V. An Evening With the Hungry 

Multitude 81 

VI. An Evening in Bethany .... 95 

VII. An Evening With the Disciples; 

Before His Death Ill 

VIII. An Evening With the Disciples; 

After His Death 129 



AN EVENING WITH A SCHOLAE 



Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, 
who belonged to the Jewish authorities; he came 
one night to Jesus and said, "Rabbi, we know 
you have come from God to teach us, for no one 
could perform these signs of yours unless God 
were with him." Jesus replied, "Truly, truly, 
I tell you, no one can see God's Realm unless 
he is born from above." — John 3:1-4. 



AN EVENING WITH A SCHOLAR 

These startling words of Jesus form the 
beginning of a conversation in which He 
endeavors to explain to this ripe scholar 
of the Jewish religion, the mysteries and 
power of the spiritual religion of the 
Kingdom of God. 

Here are some of the great things, aside 
from our text, which Jesus said in this eve- 
ning conversation: "Indeed, the Son of 
man must be lifted on high, just as Moses 
lifted up the serpent in the desert, that 
everyone who believes in him may have 
eternal life. For God loved the world so 
dearly that he gave up his only Son, so 
that every one who believes in Him may 
have eternal life, instead of perishing. 
God did not send his Son into the world to 
pass sentence on it, but to save the world 
by him: He who believes in him is not 
sentenced; he who will not believe is sen- 
tenced already, for having refused to be- 
lieve in the name of the only Son of God. 
And this is the sentence of condemnation, 
that the light has entered the world and 
yet men have preferred darkness to light. 
It is because their actions have been evil; 

11 



12 Evenings With the Master 

for any one whose practices are corrupt 
loathes the light and will not come out into 
it, in case his actions are exposed, where- 
as any one whose life is true comes out 
into the light, to make it plain that his ac- 
tions have been divinely prompted." No- 
where in the gospels is there a more mar- 
velous revelation of the motive and fact 
of redemption, the true way of salvation, 
and the consequences for those who refuse 
to walk in that way. We are not surprised 
that Nicodemus, great scholar that he was, 
should marvel and ask how these things 
could be. 

Prof. A. T. Eobertson says: "It is no- 
torious that scholars are the most difficult 
men to teach because they know so much 
already. In the case of Nicodemus, he 
had his own theology concerning the Mes- 
siah and the Kingdom of God, and it was 
clear that Jesus did not fit into his theo- 
ries, and yet he was fascinated by Jesus. 
The effort of Jesus is a kindly and gra- 
cious way of enabling Nicodemus to under- 
stand the new viewpoint. He sees into the 
mind of Nicodemus and may have read 
the Pharisaic books, for He shows always 
a thorough understanding of the defects 
of Pharisaic theology and practice. The 
new birth, which so puzzled Nicodemus, is 



An Evening With a Scholar 13 

the door into the real Kingdom of God 
which is spiritual. Nicodemus is a tragic 
instance of the preacher or teacher of 
heavenly things who has no personal ex- 
perience behind his words and merely re- 
peats logical conclusions or the parrot- 
like repetition of sentences which he has 
been taught. Jesus shows him his igno- 
rance of the elements of true religion and 
opens the door into the purposes of God in 
heaven, the great theological problems that 
concern God's redemptive love." 

As Dr. John Kelman has so well pointed 
out in his Yale Lectures, the teaching of 
such scholars as Nicodemus, "with its pas- 
sion for the elaboration of the truth al- 
ready given, its constant fallacy of a rev- 
elation closed and sealed at some point 
before contemporary times, its supercil- 
ious habit of withdrawing such knowledge 
as has been attained into a secret lore to 
which the common worshipers had no ac- 
cess, had all but succeeded in stripping 
popular religion of the last vestige of in- 
telligibility and reality." It was because 
Jesus, as a friend of the common people, 
"had insisted that religion is a thing 
which men can understand, had drawn it 
down from ballooning in their misty sky, 
and had shown it familiarly walking with 



14 Evenings With the Master 

them in the ways of their daily life, ' ' that 
such men as Nicodenms were puzzled. 

When Jesus allowed Nicodemus to look 
into the heart of the Father- God of this 
universe, He revealed to Judaism and to 
all the world the divine motive of redemp- 
tion. John 3:16 has well been called "the 
wonderful little gospel, " for in the love 
of God there is revealed the background 
of the gospel, the need for the gospel, and 
the gospel itself. The motive of redemp- 
tion can be traced back to the very begin- 
ning of God's dealings with the race. In 
the sixth chapter of Genesis we read that 
when "Jehovah saw that the wickedness 
of man was great upon the earth, and that 
every imagination of the thoughts of his 
heart w T as only evil continually ; it repent- 
ed Jehovah that he had made man on the 
earth and it grieved him at heart/ ' Why 
was God grieved at the first mastery of 
sin over the race? Because He loved, for 
"grieved" is a love term. The grief of 
God over the sin of the race is not merely 
the "grief of an artist over a disfigured 
landscape ; but the grief of a love for men 
so complete that when its beneficent pur- 
pose was foiled nothing in the universe 
could bring solace to His heart. Sin tor- 
tures the love whose intent it thwarts, be- 



An Evening With a Scholar 15 

cause the very essence of sin is the break- 
ing of all fellowship, both human and di- 
vine.' ' 

John the apostle, writing years after 
the death of Jesus, urges upon his readers 
the necessity of rightly understanding the 
motive of redemption in these words, 
"This is how the love of God has appeared 
for us, by God sending his only Son into 
the world, so that by him we might live. 
Love lies not in this, not in our love for 
him, but in his love for us — in the sending 
of his Son to be the propitiation for our 
sins." Paul grasped the real motive of re- 
demption, and in his letter to the Romans 
states it thus: "But God proves his love 
for us by this, that Christ died for us while 
we were yet sinners. Much more then, now 
that we are justified by his blood, shall we 
be saved by him from wrath. If we were 
reconciled to God by the death of his Son 
when we were enemies, much more, now 
that we are reconciled, shall we be saved 
by his life. Not only so, but we triumph in 
God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by 
whom we now enjoy our reconciliation." 

The gospel is a wonderfully simple 
statement of this great love of the Father, 
and yet we have so complicated it in our 
interpretations and presentations that the 



16 Evenings With the Master 

world has not yet realized or appreciated 
its meaning. The concrete fact of redemp- 
tion, the objective reality of the death of 
Jesus upon the cross, has always been ac- 
cepted as the basic message and the all- 
prevailing power of the gospel. But the 
motive back of this concrete fact has led 
to much bewilderment and endless theories 
and theological systems. And yet the real 
meaning of the death of Jesus must be 
found in the motive of the God who gave 
his only Son to die for a sinful world. 

The various theories of the death of 
Christ, upon which most of the creeds are 
based, make very little appeal to the mod- 
ern man. The Eansom Theory in which 
Jesus suffers and dies to pay a ransom to 
the devil, sounds like a crude myth of the 
earlier ages. The theory of Anselm, that 
man has contracted an enormous debt, and 
that nothing short of the death of an inno- 
cent victim can ever pay that debt and sat- 
isfy God, sounds hollow and mechanical 
when you try to put it into a modern set- 
ting. The Governmental Theory, that the 
laws of divine justice have been trans- 
gressed, the government of God insulted, 
and that in order to vindicate these prin- 
ciples of justice and righteousness and 
pacify an angry God a sinless man must 



An Evening With a Scholar 17 

be sacrificed, is incredible to the mind that 
is thinking in terms of the twentieth cen- 
tury. When we deal with any of the great 
theories of the death of Christ we find our- 
selves lost in the realm of the external, 
the mechanical and the theatrical. 

What, then, is the explanation? What 
is the answer to the "why" of Jesus' death 
upon the cross? Without denying the fact 
that there is much of truth in all the at- 
tempts which have been made to explain 
the death of Christ, and that the cross is 
fundamental in God's relationship to sin 
in that it presents His deepest reaction 
against sin; when we look into the heart 
of the Father of Jesus Christ we are con- 
vinced that His reaction against sin in the 
cross is that of suffering and not of pun- 
ishment. God was in Christ reconciling 
the world unto Himself. God so loved that 
he gave — suffered in the giving. "We see 
the terribleness of sin, not in the suffering 
of the lost hereafter, but in the suffering 
of Christ and God for those who have T)een 
caught in the awful grip of sin. The final 
truth of sin is in God's suffering rather 
than the sinners." And the answer, the 
motive back of it all was love. The ' ' why ' ' 
of Jesus' death is the love of our Father in 
heaven. The motive of redemption which 



18 Evenings With the Master 

most nearly meets all the facts, and which 
appeals most powerfully to the hearts of 
men, is that of love. 

The way of salvation for men, the way 
in which men are to appropriate redemp- 
tion, is that of the "new birth" or "the 
birth from above. " Many ways of salva- 
tion have been preached by men; Jesus 
preached only one way. "Truly, truly, I 
tell you, no one can see God's Realm unless 
he is born from above." The first great 
demand of Jesus was for regeneration. In 
his first public preaching he called men to 
repentance, urged them to become convert- 
ed. The birth from above implies more 
than conversion. In conversion man is an 
active agent ; he turns to God. In the birth 
from above, or regeneration, man is the 
passive agent ; he receives from God. Con- 
version is a change of mind, a turning 
around; regeneration is a change of na- 
ture. It is the putting off of the old man 
and the putting on of the new which Paul 
talks about. It is becoming dead, unre- 
sponsive to sin; and alive, or responsive 
to God. It was this first great demand 
that puzzled Xicodemus, and the simplicity 
of Jesus' statement of the way into the 
new life of the Kingdom of God has al- 
ways puzzled men who have sought to 



An Evening With a Scholar 19 

state the way of salvation in dogma and 
creed. 

Jesus makes this birth from above a uni- 
versal necessity. There are no exceptions 
and no limits are assigned to the vast obli- 
gation. Jesus was not talking about Nico- 
demus or any other Jew but about any 
man and every man. Except a man be 
born from above, except he be regenerated 
in spirit, receiving new spiritual thoughts 
and motives, new moral desires and emo- 
tions, new will-power, he can in no wise 
enter into the Realm of God's new order 
of things. 

In his ministry Jesus did not say to all 
men and women, in so many words, as he 
did to Nicodemus, "you must be born from 
above.' ' But when he came in contact 
with people "he put his finger here and 
there upon the flaws which were inherent 
in the very substance of their moral be- 
ing, and by demanding their removal ne- 
cessitated the renewal and the rearrange- 
ment of the entire life. Upon all of his 
inquirers Jesus laid such searching obliga- 
tions as to drive them back upon the neces- 
sity of this great imperative command. ' ' 

The way of salvation, then, is not the 
way of a system, the way of an opinion, or 
even the way of an intellectual conviction, 



20 Evenings With the Master 

but the way of a new life. Speaking of 
Paul's words, "If any man be in Christ he 
is a new creature," Kev. John A. Hutton 
says : i ' That, I believe is a generalization, 
which, better than any other, will be found 
to embrace and give point to the entire lit- 
erature of the New Testament. The New 
Testament does not affect me as a litera- 
ture whose object is to suggest improve- 
ments here and there on what has been 
ordinary human practice up till its day * 
* * The New Testament affects me as 
having for its object nothing short of a re- 
construction of human nature. It does not 
propose to make man a little happier than 
he was; a little better, as seeing more 
clearly the meaning of things which baf- 
fled his fathers ; a little gentler out of re- 
spect for a gentle-hearted Saviour. The 
writers of the New Testament affect me as 
themselves believing that in Christ an en- 
tire historical period, with all its sorrows 
and failures, had ended, and God in his 
only Son, had set before the human race 
an open door. * * * Christ claimed for 
this new life, which in his own person he 
founded and displayed, that it alone would 
work; that his way of living, built as it 
was upon his own way of thinking about 
God, would never break down; that it 



An Evening With a Scholar 21 

would help people to stand up to life, and 
to stand up to death; that it would keep 
our animal passions in their place ; that it 
would chain up the beast that is within us ; 
that, by its duty of mutual forgiveness, it 
would save solitary souls from rushing 
upon the tragic barriers and limits of 
life." 

With a soul on fire with the glories of 
redemption which had come to the world 
through the death of Christ, the writer of 
the epistle to the Hebrews urges his read- 
ers to pay closer attention to what they 
have heard. "For," he says, "if the di- 
vine word spoken by angels held good, if 
transgression and disobedience met with 
due punishment in every case, how shall 
we escape the penalty for neglecting a sal- 
vation which was originally proclaimed by 
the Lord himself and guaranteed to us by 
those who heard him, while God corrobo- 
rated their testimony with signs and won- 
ders and a variety of miraculous powers, 
distributing the Holy Spirit as it pleased 
him." 

There is probably no doctrine of the 
Christian religion that has been stated in 
more grotesque and repulsive terms than 
that of the future punishment of those who 
reject God's offer of redemption in Jesus 



22 Evenings With the Master 

Christ. All religious bodies are agreed 
that the consequence of unbelief is some 
form of punishment. They are not agreed 
as to the kind and as to the length of time 
of this punishment. Dr. Chas. E. Jeffer- 
son points out the fact that when we come 
to an unbiased study of the gospels we are 
led to the following conclusions concern- 
ing the doctrine of retribution: 

First, sin is punished; every sin is pun- 
ished; every sin is punished inevitably. 
Second, sin is punished naturally, not 
mechanically, not arbitrarily. Third, sin 
is punished fairly, impartially, equitably. 
Fourth, all sins are not equally heinous. 
Fifth, every man is dealt with accord- 
ing to his deserts. Sixth, the consequences 
of sin are terrible; they are fearful be- 
yond expression; they are awful beyond 
the range of thought. Seventh, the pen- 
alty of sin does not exhaust itself this 
side of the grave. Eighth, the penalties of 
sin become more grievous on the other side 
of death. 

Now the thing concerning this future 
punishment of sin which Jesus makes clear 
in his conversation with Nicodemus, is the 
very thing which has made the doctrine of 
future punishment so repulsive to our 
modern mind. The doctrine of God as a 



An Evening With a Scholar 23 

loving Father has found a ready response 
in the hearts of men. But how, they ask, 
can we reconcile the doctrine of punish- 
ment as it has been stated by the creeds, 
and even in the New Testament, with a 
God of love. Men do not believe that the 
God of the gospels metes out eternal pun- 
ishment to any of his creatures in an ar- 
bitrary way, and it is here that Jesus il- 
luminates the whole discussion. In the 
words of this third chapter of John the un- 
mistakable teaching of Jesus is that God 
sends punishment upon no man, but that 
man, if he is condemned, condemns him- 
self. "And this is the sentence of con- 
demnation, that the light has entered the 
world and yet men have preferred the 
darkness to light." Neither the Father 
nor the Son passes this sentence of con- 
demnation. It is passed by the man who 
refuses to walk in the light as the gospels 
reveal it. 

Jesus came as the light of the world, as 
the pioneer of life. Men are punished not 
because God wills it or desires it, but be- 
cause of their evil and corrupt lives which 
they are afraid to bring out into the clear 
white light of the facts of the gospel. This 
is the meaning of Jesus' words in the 
eighth chapter of John when he says to 



24 Evenings With the Master 

those Scribes and Pharisees who had chal- 
lenged his Sonship, "I go away, and you 
will search for me, but you will die in your 
sin; where I go, ye cannot come." What 
was their sin ? A failure to believe on Je- 
sus as the Son of God and the light of the 
world. What was their punishment? Sim- 
ply the consequences of their own unbe- 
lief — eternal banishment from the pres- 
ence of the Son of God. 

How much richer the world is because of 
this evening with the Master. The con- 
versation must have made a wonderful im- 
pression upon Nicodemus, but just how far 
it influenced his life we are unable to say. 
He did not openly become a follower of 
Jesus, but in the end he showed some 
friendliness for His cause. He may have 
belonged to that large group of "secret 
disciples," but this we know, that by his 
own public decision he never became a 
power for Christ and the kingdom. 

Christ's call today is not for secret dis- 
ciples. There were thousands of citizens 
in America who secretly believed that 
America was right in entering the war, but 
who, because of business or other reasons 
never voiced their convictions at first. But 
the government soon recognized the fact 
that the war could never be won with se- 



An Evening With a Scholar 25 

cret patriots. Every citizen was forced to 
declare himself, to make a decision. So it 
was with the Master, and so it is today. 
His call was a call for decision. His would- 
be followers were confronted in the very 
beginning with a choice between his king- 
dom and the world. "No man can serve 
two masters. * * * Ye cannot serve God 
and Mammon." His call now is for men 
and women who will stand out openly and 
fearlessly for him. The greatest fear that 
ever entered the heart of a soldier was the 
fear that in a moment of weakness he might 
play the part of a coward. It is the great- 
est disgrace that can come to a soldier. 
There is no more room for cowards in the 
Army of the Lord than in the Army of our 
Nation. It was never easier to play the 
coward in things religious than it is today. 
So many great issues to face every hour; 
so many temptations to do the unright- 
eous and unholy thing; so many tremen- 
dous decisions to make that the average 
soul is bewildered. But the Master calls to 
something better. 

Will you go away tonight as a secret dis- 
ciple, or will you stand out for Jesus as 
your Saviour? It may mean, it will mean 
sacrifice. It may mean the rearrangement 
of your whole life. But be assured that 



26 Evenings With the Master 

any changes you make in your manner of 
living to fit into the program of Jesus will 
greatly enrich your life. In our better mo- 
ments we all recognize "that greater love 
hath no man than this; that a man lay 
down his life for his friends," and in our 
inmost souls we know that sacrifice lies 
at the very root of our being and at the 
heart of the universe. 

I have read of the Taj Mahal, perhaps 
the most beautiful tomb in all the world. 
The East Indian prince loved his beautiful 
wif e as few women are ever loved. In the 
eagerness of his affection, and as a token 
of it, he planned a palace for her. But the 
princess went down into the mysterious 
land of motherhood, and the babe came 
back alone. Sitting by her body he cried, 
"Oh, my beautiful Mahal, you shall have 
your palace though it be a tomb." After 
twenty years the wonderful Taj was fin- 
ished and received its precious dead. A 
traveler standing in the recesses alone, 
read aloud the inscription on the head- 
stone. "Sacred to the memory of an un- 
dying love." A wonderful echo caught up 
the words and bore them toward the dome, 
where like a baffled bird, they fell to the 
pavement, again to rise, only to flutter 
down again, but ever repeating the chiseled 



An Evening With a Scholar 27 

words," sacred to the memory of an un- 
dying love." 

Jesus holds the world in his heart and 
hand today because his cross stands " sa- 
cred to the memory of an undying love" — 
the love of God who sent his Son, and the 
love of the Son who gave his life for the 
larger life of humanity. 

When I survey the wondrous cross, 
On which the Prince of Glory died ; 
My richest gain I count but loss, 
And pour contempt on all my pride. 

Were the whole realm of nature mine, 
That were a present far too small ; 
Love so amazing, so divine 
Demands my love, my life, my all. 



AN EVENING IN PEACTICAL 
SERVICE 



At sunset all who had any people ill with any 
sort of disease brought them to him; he laid his 
hands on every one and healed them. — Luke 
4:40. 



AN EVENING IN PEACTICAL 
SERVICE 

Ministering to the physical ailments of 
people was an essential part of Jesus ' 
ministry. Closely connected with his mis- 
sion of teaching in the synagogues, and 
preaching the gospel of the kingdom, was 
his healing of all manner of disease and 
sickness. There is always a sense of the 
tragic connected with disease, and yet the 
picture which is suggested by our text is 
beautiful and full of meaning. As soon as 
the hot Syrian sun goes down, the people, 
having heard that Jesus was in their com- 
munity, came from their houses bringing 
their sick and all those who needed healing 
to the Great Physician. 

Dean Farrar has painted the picture in 
his "Life of Christ' ' in words which we 
cannot forget. "What a strange scene! 
There lay the limpid lake, reflecting in pale 
rose-color the last flush of the sunset that 
gilded the western hills; and here, amid 
the peace of nature, was exposed, in hide- 
ous variety, the sickness and misery of 
man, while the stillness of the Sabbath 

31 



32 Evenings With the Master 

twilight was broken by the shrieks of de- 
moniacs who testified to the presence of 
the Son of God. 

A lazar-house it seemed, wherein were laid 

Numbers of all diseased ; all maladies 

Of ghastly spasm, and raking tortures, qualms 

Of heart-sick agony, all feverous kinds, 

Demoniac frenzy, moping melancholy 

And moonstruck madness ; 

and amid them all, not 

Despair 

Tended the sick, busiest from couch to couch, 
And over them triumphant, Death his dart 
Shook * * * 

but far into the deepening dusk, the only 
person there who was unexcited and un- 
alarmed — hushing by his voice the delirium 
of madness and the screams of epilepsy, 
touching disease into health again by lay- 
ing on each unhappy and tortured sufferer 
his pure and gentle hands — moved, in his 
love and tenderness, the young prophet of 
Nazareth, the Christ, the Saviour of the 
world." 

Jesus recognized disease as a fact. It 
was one of the barriers to perfect man- 
hood and womanhood which he came to 
break down. There is nothing in the teach- 



An Evening in Practical Service 33 

ing of Jesus upon which to build a system 
of religion which tells people that sickness 
is unreal and imaginary, and which propa- 
gates the idea "that disease is purely a 
matter of mental notion, to be denied and 
never spoken of." The deep sympathy of 
Jesus for the suffering of humanity does 
not fit into the creed, "that because evil 
is not truth it is untrue, and, if untrue, un- 
real." 

The danger of dwelling upon the heal- 
ing ministry of Jesus is that we are apt 
to over-estimate its importance in his gen- 
eral program. The fact is, that while he 
did heal many, he did not promise to de- 
liver from bodily disease at all, and there 
is no universal promise of physical heal- 
ing in the gospel. The healing of the 
broken bodies of men was only an incident 
in the whole ministry of Jesus and in his 
message for the world. 

It has been observed that "the person- 
alities who have powerfully affected the 
world have not been merely thinkers and 
teachers; they have been also workers 
and sufferers." However we may inter- 
pret the healing ministry of Jesus we must 
admit that without this ministry, through 
which shines his deepest compassion for 
the sufferings of humanity, one of the 



34 Evenings With the Master 

divinest aspects of his character would be 
lost. We must also admit that when Je- 
sus said to his disciples, " Truly, truly, 1 
tell you, he who believes in me will do the 
very deeds I do, and still greater deeds 
than these," he meant that they should 
carry forward his ministry of healing and 
power. 

The church is to minister to the physi- 
cal needs and suffering of humanity. The 
healing of the lame man at the "Gate 
Beautiful" is an illustration of how the 
early church fulfilled this prophecy of Je- 
sus. The man looked for a few coins to 
keep his poor crippled body from starva- 
tion. He received new life and new hope, 
and "leaping up he stood, and began to 
walk; and he entered with them into the 
temple, walking and leaping and praising 
God." 

The cripple still lies at the ' ' Gate Beau- 
tiful" of the temple. Each Lord's Day as 
we go to our beautiful and comfortable 
places of worship we may see him. And in 
his eyes we see reflected the great modern 
problem of the church and the dependent 
classes of society. He is the embodiment 
of that great mass of sinning, suffering, 
needy humanity which seeks the heart and 



An Evening in Practical Service 35 

hand of Christian love to lift it up and 
stand it upon its feet. 

In our ministry to the needy three things 
must be kept in mind. First, we must rec- 
ognize the fact that these people must be 
helped in a material way. Perhaps the 
finest flower which Christianity has pro- 
duced so far in its history is charity. But 
to be effective charity must be exercised 
in a scientific way. In most communities 
the church would do well to co-operate in 
the fullest manner with those agencies 
which have made a scientific study of con- 
ditions and know where help is actually 
needed. The second thing to remember 
is that above all material want, people 
need help to help themselves. We must 
teach the dependent classes how to be 
healthy and efficient, how to stand on their 
own feet, and take care of themselves. 
This cannot be done by absent treatment. 
It can be done only through personal con- 
tact. Thousands may need your money, 
but tens of thousands need your hand to 
lift them up. They need to feel the pulse 
of a warm heart throbbing in a hand shake. 
They need to look into loving eyes and see 
the glow of a soul that has been with Je- 
sus. 

Helping men to help themselves was the 



36 Evenings With the Master 

method of Jesus. If we have thought that 
charity, the feeding and clothing of peo- 
ple in need and the caring for the sick and 
the crippled, is the only contribution which 
Christianity has made to relieve the suf- 
fering of humanity, we have thought 
wrong. Jesus healed and helped not sim- 
ply to exercise the emotion of charity 
which filled his great soul, but to put men 
and women on their feet and give them a 
new and better start in life. It is not 
enough to toss a coin to a beggar now and 
then or write our annual check for the As- 
sociated Charities and the Salvation Army 
to satisfy the emotion of charity in our 
souls. We must look upon every unfor- 
tunate man, whatever be his ill, as an ob- 
ject of our love and care, and extend the 
hand and speak the word which will give 
him a new start in life. 

The third thing is this. When we have 
helped people in a material way; when 
we have taken them by the hand and in- 
spired them to help themselves, we must 
see that they have a community, a city, a 
state and a nation in which human beings 
can live at their best. Why lift a poor, 
weak creature to his feet, inspire him with 
new hope and courage, and then send him 
back to live under conditions which break 



An Evening in Practical Service 37 

down the strongest of men? There are 
sections in every great city, and in many 
of our smaller cities, in which those who 
must live there day in and day out are 
predestined to a life of vice and sin. These 
open sores of our modern city life must 
be cleansed and healed before we have done 
our whole duty as a church to the depend- 
ent classes. These are some of the "great- 
er things" which Jesus has set for his 
church to accomplish. It is along these 
roads that the church must travel in its 
healing ministry if it would be true to its 
mission. 

In this evening of practical service one 
of the most outstanding characteristics 
of the people of Jesus' day is revealed. 
When they found him, at once they began 
to bring others to him. Not only did Je- 
sus spend many of his evenings in heal- 
ing men; his disciples and friends spent 
many of their evenings in bringing their 
companions within reach of his healing 
power. 

It is said that "out of nearly forty spe- 
cific cases of healing recorded in the four 
gospels, only six came of themselves. 
About twenty cases w r ere brought to Christ 
by others, and were healed, not primarily 
because of their own faith and asking, but 



38 Evenings With the Master 

because of the faith and asking of those 
who brought them. * * * Notice also that 
these twenty cases who were brought by 
others were hard cases, persons who would 
not or could not come of their own accord. 
Is this an accident? Is it unimportant 
that while Jesus was here on earth nearly 
three times as many people came to him 
because they w r ere brought by others, as 
came by themselves?" Should it be any 
different today? There are many people 
all around us who will not attend religious 
services or come in contact in any way 
with Jesus Christ as a powerful Saviour 
unless they are brought by those who are 
interested in their spiritual welfare. You 
can, if you will, make the close of many a 
day glorious by leading some friend into 
the presence of the Living Christ. 

Out of the literature of the Interchurch 
World Movement I take two cases which 
illustrate how far short the church in our 
day has come of measuring up to this New 
Testament ideal. Two strong successful 
business men in a certain community w r ere 
sent by their pastor to call on a prosper- 
ous neighbor in a friendly way, and talk 
with him about Christ. After the social 
courtesies were passed one of the men 
said, "Our pastor sent us to see you and 



An Evening in Practical Service 39 

to say in a friendly way that both he and 
we would be mighty glad if you would join 
us in being a loyal follower of Jesus 
Christ." The man was so astonished that 
he said, "Let me be sure that I understand 
you. Do I understand that you two men 
and your pastor are simply interested in 
my being a Christian ? " " That is the sim- 
ple proposition, " replied one of the vis- 
itors. "Well," he responded, "that is 
mighty strange. I have had many calls 
from the church, some for money and some 
for other things. But I have never had a 
visit from any one who was interested in 
me for my own sake. You may tell your 
pastor that I will be in my office next Tues- 
day afternoon at four o'clock, and if he can 
show me how to be a Christian I will be 
mighty glad." The pastor went. The 
man became a Christian, joined the church 
and is now a powerful influence in that 
community. He came to Christ because 
two of his friends were interested enough 
to bring him. 

A group of lay officials complained of 
the great spiritual indifference in their 
community. Their leader said, "Let us 
see if there is spiritual indifference here. 
If so, where is it?" Then he said to that 
group, "How many of the men present 



40 Evenings With the Master 

have had a conversation about Christ with 
any man in this community, outside the 
walls of the church, during the past twelve 
months ? ' ' Not a man had done it. i i How 
many have done it in the last five years?" 
the leader urged. Not a man responded. 
Then said the leader with some emphasis, 
"There is spiritual indifference in this 
community, but it is not all outside of the 
church." This experience may be dupli- 
cated in many churches, and there are 
thousands outside of the church in every 
community who have never been urged by 
their Christian friends to surrender their 
lives to Jesus. The redemption of the 
world w^aits upon the bringing of men and 
women into saving contact with the Great 
Healer of both body and soul. 

The real greatness of Jesus was the 
greatness of a servant. His miracles were 
not great because of their show- of super- 
natural power, but because of their min- 
istry to people in need. And Jesus was a 
servant not because he was forced to be. 
He might have spared his young life from 
the rigid exactions of an unpopular lead- 
ership, lived quietly in Nazareth plying his 
trade as a carpenter, and died of a good 
old age. Jesus was a servant because he 
deliberately chose to suffer with and for 



An Evening in Practical Service 41 

his people. He called himself the son of 
man and one of his most remarkable say- 
ings was, ' ' The son of man came not to be 
ministered unto, but to minister. * * *" 
Jesus lived for others. The burden of his 
teaching was for the sake of others. He 
spoke of himself only that he might show 
men the way to the Father. The supreme 
fact of his life that stands out above all 
others is that he lived and died for others. 
Dr. James I. Vance has said of him, "Had 
he merely been a great teacher, the world 
would have admired him. But because he 
became a minister and took the place of a 
servant, the world worships him. * * # He 
came not to be a monarch but a minister, 
and because he became a minister he has 
become a mightier than any monarch. ' ' 

The greatness which becomes mighty 
through playing the role of a servant is 
the greatness which the world admires. If 
the last few years have taught us the real 
meaning of the " might makes right philos- 
ophy"; they have also exalted to the high- 
est place in our estimation the man and 
the nation which renders an unselfish serv- 
ice to humanity, and given us a new ap- 
preciation of the real greatness of Jesus 
Christ. 



42 Evenings With the Master 

Somewhere, I have read of a lawyer in 
a county-seat town who one year actually 
earned fifty dollars. He lived like a 
prince. He had a summer home on the 
river and a winter home in the south and 
a house in town. He had a private in- 
come of considerable size. But his office 
was never crowded and nearly every one 
in the place considered him as a joke. He 
had social distinction. He and his wife 
dressed well. Thev drove a fine car, but 
no one took them seriously. Eunning for 
mayor he received about three votes. 

Now contrast this with another office 
in that town. The doctor, who was much 
sought, had been some years before a 
courteous clerk in a drug store. He had 
worked his way through medical college. 
Coming back to his home town he had hung 
out his shingle and waited. He waited 
long. People began to say that the young 
doctor was a failure. One day three men 
were terribly scalded in a boiler down at 
the water works. The leading physician 
was called and after a hurried and im- 
proper examination gave them up to die. 
All three were poor men. At this junc- 
ture the young doctor w^ent to the pom- 
pous physician and asked for the oppor- 
tunity of serving those men. With a wave 



An Evening in Practical Service 43 

of his hand it was granted. Then the 
young fellow went down to the poorest 
part of the town, into the miserable 
homes of these men and stayed there day 
and night, giving them every attention 
that the profession knew. So faithful was 
he that he kept glowing the spark of life 
remaining and slowly and painfully nursed 
the men back to recovery. The people of 
this town heard of this good work and be- 
gan to turn to the young doctor. Today 
his offices are crowded; and yet he is still 
courteous and gracious serving rich and 
poor alike. He won his way into the heart 
and confidence of his community because 
he was among them as one who served. 

The greatest man in any community is 
the one who serves most. The test by 
which we shall stand or fall in the judg- 
ment is the test of generous service to hu- 
manity in the name of Jesus Christ. The 
most terrible heresy is not that of denying 
some proposition in the creed of the 
church, but of selfishly withholding from 
a needy world some service which we can 
give to enrich its life. The real measure 
of our usefulness to the world is our serv- 
ice, and the measure of our service will 
depend upon whether or not we have made 
a complete surrender of our lives to Jesus 



44 Evenings With the Master 

Christ the world's greatest servant. He is 
the Great Companion who will keep lis in 
the line of duty. 

Where cross the crowded ways of life, 
Where sound the cries of race and clan, 
Above the noise of selfish strife, 
We hear Thy voice, Son of Man. 

In haunts of wretchedness and need. 
On shadowed thresholds dark with fears, 
From paths where hides the lure of greed, 
We catch the vision of Thy tears. 

The cup of water given for Thee 
Still holds the freshness of Thy grace; 
Yet long these multitudes to see 
The sweet compassion of Thy face. 

From tender childhood's helplessness 
From woman's grief, man's burdened toil, 
From famished souls, from sorrow's stress, 
Thy heart has never known recoil. 

Master, from the mountain side, 
Make haste to heal these hearts of pain. 
Among these restless throngs abide, 
tread the city's streets again. 

Till sons of men shall learn Thy love 
And follow where Thy feet have trod ; 
Till glorious from the heaven above 
Shall come the city of our God. 



AN EVENING ALONE WITH THE 
EATHEE 



Tlun he made the disciples embark in a boat 
and cross before him to the other side, while he 
dismissed the crowds; after he had dismissed 
the crowds he went up the hill by himself to 
pray. When evening came he was there alone. 
—Matt. 14 :22-24. 



AN EVENING ALONE WITH THE 
FATHER 

When Jesus heard of the death of John 
the Baptist he sought the privacy of a des- 
ert place. He wanted to be alone, but it 
was impossible for that voice which had 
spoken a message of healing, and those 
hands which had touched broken and fe- 
vered bodies into new life, to evade the 
crowds. So eager were the multitudes for 
his ministry that they had anticipated the 
place of his retirement and when the little 
boat landed, they were there to meet him. 
Touched again with the tragedy of their 
infirmities he walked among them healing 
their ills of body and soul and the last 
rays of the dying sun saw him creating in 
a miraculous way the bread which they 
had neglected to bring along for their nour- 
ishment. Then, when evening came he dis- 
missed the disciples and the crowds, and 
the gathering shades of night found him 
alone in a solitary place with his Father. 
He sought the i ' silence and solitude of the 
mountains. Amid the hills, and with the 
long shadows cast by the moonlight on the 
sward, in the sacred house and temple of 

47 



48 Evenings With the Master 

God he bowed himself." This picture of 
the Master is not only one of the most 
beautiful in the record of his life, but it 
has in it one of the most needed messages 
for our weary, restless age. 

In a splendid essay called ' ' Companions 
of The Heart," Joseph Fort Newton has 
voiced one of the most urgent needs of our 
day. "The voices of the age," he says, 
"call men away from the inner life; psy- 
chology seeks to dissolve it into mist and 
dreams; and we are almost imperceptibly 
led to neglect it. Today, even more than 
when Emerson wrote, 'things are in the 
saddle and ride mankind', and if — 

Through the harsh noises of our day 
A low, sweet prelude finds its way — 

it is often hard to hear. Our life is ob- 
sessed by things external; our literature 
gives us little more than passing thoughts 
of things eternal. Science has unveiled 
the incredible vastness of the universe, and 
what we need now is to rediscover the still 
greater heights and depths and richness of 
the Kingdom of Heaven which is within." 
This lack of emphasis upon the reality of 
the inner life is nowhere felt more keenly 
than in an approach to the subject of pray- 



An Evening Alone With the Father 49 

er. When " things are in the saddle' ' men 
do not pray, and this is one of the most 
serious facts of these post-war days. The 
Prayer Meetings where they are still con- 
ducted, are not crowded. The family al- 
tar is a rare institution in our American 
homes, while the quiet hour which has been 
emphasized by several religious organiza- 
tions, notably the Christian Endeavor so- 
cieties, has no place in the lives of thou- 
sands who otherwise would be called good 
churchmen and orthodox Christians. 

Before the war we were conscious of a 
dearth of prayer in our churches. To the 
ordinary Christian prayer had come to 
mean the attempt to gain in man's hour of 
need, and in his consciousness of his own 
weakness, the aid of God. Such a concep- 
tion of prayer as a cry of distress, a con- 
fession of human impotence, tended toward 
the exaggeration of the importance of pe- 
tition as the chief act of prayer. Through 
prayer man could prevail upon God to do 
certain things which He otherwise would 
not have done. Prayer had become a 
means of getting God's sanction upon the 
schemes and plans of men and His aid in 
carrying them out. Now, we are aware of 
the fact that the average man was coming 



50 Evenings With the Master 

to feel a pronounced distrust in prayer 
that originated in human need and extrem- 
ity. He was, as someone has suggested, 
prone to feel much like Milton says Adam 
did after he had sinned. 

If by prayer 
Incessant I could hope to change the will 
Of him who all things can, I would not cease 
To weary him with my assiduous cries : 
But prayer against his absolute decree 
No more avails than breath against the wind 
Blown stifling back on him that breathes it forth. 
Therefore, to his great bidding I submit. 

But when the storm of world conflict 
broke in 1914 and drenched the earth with 
blood and tears, even those who were skep- 
tical were brought to their knees. In their 
extremity they returned to the conception 
of prayer which they had been ready to 
to discard. Reeling to and fro like drunk- 
en men, at their wit's end, they cried unto 
the Lord in their trouble. France, which 
before the Avar had been a land of athe- 
ists began to pray. In England, where ac- 
cording to W. Robertson Xicholl a steady 
drift of atheism was carrying the nation 
away from God and Christ, the people be- 
gan to pray. The English women, sacri- 
ficing all, enduring all that the war placed 



An Evening Alone With the Father 51 

upon them, when asked for the reason of 
their courage in the face of hardships and 
dangers, and the source of their endur- 
ance, gave the quiet reply, "We pray." 
And in America, in the face of a spirit of 
greed and materialism which called forth 
the following criticism of our life, "There 
is very great danger that when the his- 
tory of the w r orld conflict be written, Amer- 
ica's part will be that of a supposedly neu- 
tral onlooker, shrewdly speculating the 
while how many millions of dollars may 
accrue to the United States because of 
Europe's misfortune," the people began 
to pray. When the call to prayer was 
sounded throughout the length and breadth 
of the land, when at noon-time the people 
heard a new Angelus in the shrill whistles 
of industry mingled with the peals of deep- 
sounded church bells, they left their busy 
tasks and prayed. 

Now that the crisis has ended and the 
emotional excitement has abated, the old 
skepticism is returning. Men who prayed 
during the war are not praying now. In 
fact, as they think of their experience, they 
are convinced that their prayers did not 
amount to anything in the final issues of 
the conflict. Mothers and wives and sweet- 



52 Evenings With the Master 

hearts who prayed during the war are not 
praying now. Boys who prayed in the 
camps and in the trenches are not praying 
now; they are not even attending the ser- 
vices of the church as regularly as they did 
before, and hundreds of them have dropped 
out of the church altogether. Surely in 
the face of conditions which we know to 
exist, there is need for some clear thinking 
on the part of the church concerning the 
subject of prayer. 

When we attempt to analyze the situa- 
tion we find that this skepticism concern- 
ing the value of prayer is based upon cer- 
tain conclusions of modern science, and up- 
on the experience of men and women who 
have been devout and sincere in their pray- 
er life. Modern science has greatly en- 
larged our conception of the material uni- 
verse. When men believed that the earth 
was the center of the universe, it was easy 
to believe that all of God's attention was 
directed towards the affairs of the earth 
and his children who dwelt there. But as 
they have come to see the immensity of the 
universe it is hard for them to believe that 
God spends all his time in hearing and an- 
swering the petty and selfish petitions of 
those who pray. This enlarged conception 



An Evening Alone With the Father 53 

has made the average man doubt whether 
God has much to do with the petty affairs 
and problems that go to make up the round 
of his existence. 

In another way modern science has 
strengthened this skepticism concerning 
the value of prayer. It is becoming evi- 
dent to most people through conclusions 
which have been substantiated by fact, 
that this vast universe of which we are a 
part is controlled throughout by unchang- 
ing and unchangeable laws. This being 
the case, it is natural that some very 
pointed questions should be asked concern- 
ing a conception of prayer which professes 
to be able to get things which are not forth- 
coming through regular processes of nat- 
ural law working in the universe. Why 
pray for rain, or for it to stop raining? 
If this conclusion of science is true, it rains 
or it does not rain, because of certain at- 
mospheric conditions which are subject to 
the laws of the universe and not the de- 
sires of men. Why should we pray for the 
safety of a loved one upon the ocean, when 
the winds and the waves are obedient to the 
laws of nature and not the wishes of men? 
We cannot evade these questionings of sin- 



54 Evenings With the Master 

cere and devout souls, and we cannot de- 
ny the fact of the skepticism which is back 
of them. 

The most dangerous phase of this skep- 
ticism, however, is that which is based up- 
on the experiences of men and women who 
are not praying because they say they 
have through long years, never received 
any adequate or satisfying answer to 
their prayers. In days of trouble and ex- 
tremity they have not seen the face of the 
Father, neither have they heard his voice 
speaking peace to their souls. Here we 
face some of the deepest tragedies of the 
human soul. Here is a father who has 
prayed for the success of his business that 
he might adequately rear his family. His 
business has gone to smash through no 
seeming fault of his own efforts or judg- 
ment, but because of forces which he could 
not control, and he has stopped praying. 
Here is a home where an only child has 
been the object of the prayers of parents 
who have dreamed great dreams for its fu- 
ture and who have sacrificed their best to 
make those dreams come true. Just as the 
child is ready to step out and take its place 
in life and fulfil those dreams, death stalks 
across the threshold and the idol is broken 



An Evening Alone With the Father 55 

and shattered upon the floor. Broken 
hearted and bewildered these parents stop 
praying. Here is a mother who prayed 
earnestly, and far into many weary, sleep- 
less, nights that her boy might return 
from France. He has not returned and 
that mother has shut prayer out of her life. 
These people have been orthodox Chris- 
tians and they have prayed as the church 
has taught them to pray through long 
years, and yet they have ceased to pray be- 
cause after repeated efforts they have re- 
ceived no answer to their deepest cries. It 
is this practical skepticism that accounts 
for the fact that thousands are not praying 
today. 

What then? In the face of this skepti- 
cism shall we give up and stop praying? 
In the following paragraph from a discus- 
sion of prayer by John Haynes Holmes, in 
which these two objections are mentioned 
along with others, we find the true solution. 
"I believe that the objections which have 
been properly levelled against this concep- 
tion have been objections not to prayer it- 
self, but to a false idea of prayer which has 
unfortunately found lodgment in the hu- 
man mind. I believe that prayer, when 
rightly understood and practiced, is the 



56 Evenings With the Master 



noblest act of which a human being is 
capable, and is something absolutely es- 
sential to the purity and integrity of the 
soul. And I believe that it is the task 
of our age, not to get away from the idea 
and practice of prayer altogether, be- 
cause a false conception of its observance 
has been impressed upon our attention, 
but to get back to that true spirit of 
prayer, which is reflected in the utterances 
of all the great souls of the centuries gone 
by, and then yield ourselves to this spirit 
in spirit and in truth/' 

Where shall we turn for a true concep- 
tion of prayer? We may turn w T ith great 
profit to Judaism. To the Jew, prayer 
that was merely the expression of a human 
need was no prayer at all. To such an ap- 
peal, simply the cry of human distress, 
Jeremiah said God would be deaf. From 
such expressions as, " Trust in Him at all 
times, ye people ; pour out your hearts be- 
fore him ; ' ' or " These things I remembered 
and poured out my soul within me," it is 
evident that for the devout Jew prayer 
meant the turning of the heart to God as 
a natural expression of the religious life, 
and not merely as a petition in time of 
need. 

Our greatest and most accurate source 
of knowledge on the subject of prayer, so 



An Evening Alone With the Father 57 

far as Christians are concerned, lies in the 
example and teaching of Jesus himself. 
Three facts in his life have never been 
questioned — that he believed in prayer, 
that he prayed himself, and that he taught 
his disciples to pray. The disciples were 
all men of prayer. They were acquainted 
with the prevailing conception of prayer 
in their day. John had taught some of 
them how to pray, and yet after seeing 
Jesus in prayer and hearing the utter- 
ances of his great soul, instinctively they 
recognized themselves as mere amateurs 
in the art and came to Jesus with the re- 
quest, "Lord teach us to pray." 

Back of Jesus' idea of prayer was the 
consciousness of his unique relationship 
with the Father. He was God's Son. The 
mission he was sent to carry out was the 
Father's mission. His word was not his 
own but the Father's. Prayer became 
then, the natural expression of his soul 
to the Father in communion, and in his en- 
deavor to carry out His will. Prayer was 
not a method by which he sought to secure 
the aid of God in carrying out his pro- 
gram, but a method whereby he sought to 
bring himself into line more completely 
with the program and will of God, 



58 Evenings With the Master 

All of Jesus ' teachings on prayer are en- 
forced by his' own example. He prayed at 
every important crisis in his ministry. It 
was his daily habit. In everything, for ev- 
erything, and before everything he prayed. 
In the beginning of his life-work he prayed 
(Luke 3 :21). It w^as his support for daily 
work (Mark 1:35). It w r as his refuge in 
popularity and success (Luke 5 :15, 16). It- 
was his preparation for solemn duties 
(Luke 6:12, 13). It was his attitude in a 
time of great spiritual elevation (Luke 9: 
28, 29) . It was his solace in time of sorrow 
(Matt.l4:13). It was his retreat in times 
of spiritual distress (Matt. 26:36; Mark 
14:32). 

Only a few of Jesus' prayers are record- 
ed. His prayer in Matthew 11 :25, 26 is one 
of praise and thanksgiving to the Father. 
His prayer in John 12 :27, 28 is one of sub- 
mission to the will of the Father in an hour 
when his own soul was disquieted. His 
wonderful prayer in John 17 is the mas- 
terpiece of all intercession. And in the 
prayer in the garden, which is recorded in 
Luke 22:42, we see the final surrender of 
his will to the Father, and the final clash 
of the old and the new conception of pray- 
er. For a moment, with the terribleness 



An Evening Alone With the Father 59 

of the cross before his vision, he urged the 
Father to take away the cup, but it was 
only for a moment. In his final plea, "but 
Thy will not mine be done," we have the 
secret of all prevailing prayer — not that 
God should help us to do our will, but that 
He might help us to do his will. 

The most comprehensive teaching of 
Jesus on the subject of prayer, the teach- 
ing which is the basis of all other in the 
New Testament, is found in the sixth chap- 
ter of Matthew. Here the fundamental 
idea of true prayer is that God is our 
Father. Hence, men are taught to pray 
"Our Father who art in heaven." Over 
against the conception of prayer which 
ended in vain and empty repetitions to a 
deity who was reluctant to grant gifts to 
men, Jesus places the conception that "Our 
Father knoweth what we have need of be- 
fore we ask him." The whole teaching of 
Jesus in this chapter is that prayer should 
be the communion of a soul with the 
Father, the value of this communion to 
be determined by the complete surrender 
of the soul to the will of the Father. 
Men are to seek first the Kingdom of 
God, that is, seek first to put themselves 
in line with the great purposes and plans 
of God for the world, and then expect 



60 Evenings With the Master 

that the other things, which have so often 
been the chief burden of our prayers, 
should be added unto them. In the light 
of this teaching it is small wonder that 
the prayers of many people are never 
answered. Thousands of people who have 
called themselves good Christians, and who 
have held high positions in the church, 
have never approached this conception of 
prayer. Their chiefest concern has been 
for themselves and the burden of their 
prayers has been for God's blessing upon 
their own enterprises. This explains the 
tragedy of those who have ceased to pray 
because their prayers have not been an- 
swered. 

Prayer that puts " these other things'' 
first is not Christian prayer, and it can 
never be answered. Only the prayer of a 
soul that has become aware of God's great 
plans for the redemption of a world, and 
that has consciously put itself in line with 
those plans in an effort to help in their 
completion, can expect any answer to 
prayer. "All these things" makes room 
for all of the petitions and desires that may 
legitimately be brought to the ear of our 
Father in heaven. It is not that God is not 
interested in his world, but that he de- 



An Evening Alone With the Father 61 

mands an interest on the part of his chil- 
dren for its welfare. God wants sons and 
daughters who will commune with him 
about the purposes of High heaven for the 
world, and not nagging boys and girls who 
are constantly begging for the goodies 
which he is only too glad to give to those 
who love him. 

Prayer then, according to the example 
and teaching of the Son of God, is not an 
effort on the part of man to change God, 
but to change himself. It is an attempt 
not to get God to adapt his mind to man's 
selfish ambitions and desires, but to bring 
these ambitions and desires in line with 
the will of God. It is not an attempt to 
persuade God to reduce the universe to the 
measure of man's existence, but to enlarge 
man's soul to the measure of divine pur- 
pose. As William Watson in a little vol- 
ume on Prayer has so well said, i ' The pur- 
pose of prayer is not to change the will of 
God, but to make us fulfil it. The more in- 
timate our friendship with God, the more 
wisely shall we pray. We shall discern 
something of the design God is working 
out in us, and we shall pray not because 
we want something, but because we are 
eager to take the full profit of our heritage 



62 Evenings With the Master 

and cultivate that spiritual kinship with 
God which the world tempts us to forget/ ' 
An evening alone with the Father — how 
much we all need it, and we may have it 
for the asking. God is always there ready 
to meet us in some solitary place, and he 
is always ready to hear us when we pray 
as Jesus prayed. 

Each soul has its own secret place, 
Where none may enter in, 
Save it and God — to them alone 
What goeth on therein is known — 
To it and God alone. 

And well for it if God be there, 
And in supreme control ; 
For every deed comes of a seed, 
And lonely seed may evil breed 
In any lonely soul. 

But none, except of his own will, 
Need ever lonely be ; 
If he but quest, his Royal Guest 
Will quick provide him with the best 
Of all good Company. 



AN EVENING IN THE STORM 



That same day when evening came he said to 
them, "Let us cross to the other side; 99 so, 
leaving the crowd they took him just as he was 
in the boat, accompanied by some other boats. 
But a heavy squall of wind came on, and the 
waves splashed into the boat, so that the boat 
filled. He was sleeping on the cushion in the 
stern, so they woke him up saying, "Teacher, 
are we to drown for all you care? 99 And he 
woke up, checked the wind, and told the sea, 
"Peace, be quiet. 99 The wind fell and there 
was a great calm. Then he said to them, "Why 
are you afraid like this? Have you no faith 
yet? 99 But they were overawed and said to 
each other, "Whatever can he be, when the very 
wind and sea obey him? 99 — Mark 4:35-41. 



AN EVENING IN THE STORM 

In this evening scene in the life of the 
Master, the two great characteristics of 
his personality stand out in bold contrast 
— his humanity and his divinity. In the 
tired and weary Jesus, asleep in the stern 
of the boat after a busy day in serving the 
multitudes, we have the picture of a man. 
In the Jesus who awakens to calm the 
strong elements of nature with his simple 
command, we hear the voice and witness 
the power of one who was more than man. 

It has always been hard for men to un- 
derstand how Christ could be both human 
and divine and the two conceptions of .his 
nature which are so wonderfully blended 
in the gospel records, have divided the 
world into two theological camps. This is 
due to the fact, as Henry Van Dyke has so 
clearly pointed out in his great lecture on 
" The Human Life of God," that the later 
church fathers, "instead of looking at God 
through his revelation in Christ, began to 
look at Christ through a more and more 
abstract, precise, and inflexible statement 
of the metaphysical idea of God. It be- 

65 



66 Evenings With the Master 

came necessary to harmonize the Scripture 
record of the life of Jesus with the theories 
of the divine nature set forth in the decrees 
of the councils and defined with amazing 
particularity in the writings of the theo- 
logians. In the effort to accomplish this 
two main lines of thought were followed. 
One line abandoned the belief in Christ's 
real and complete humanity, and reduced 
His human life to a tenuous and filmy 
apparition. The other line distinguished 
between His humanity and His Divinity 
in such a way as to divide Him into two 
halves, either of which appears virtually 
complete without the other, and both of 
which are united, not in a single and 
sincere personality, but in an outward 
manifestation and a concealed life, cov- 
ering in some mysterious way a double 
center of existence." While the extreme 
results of these two lines of thought were 
condemned as heresies, they were not 
entirely destroyed. "They continued to 
make themselves felt powerfully and per- 
niciously; now in the direction of dissolv- 
ing the humanity of Christ into a mere 
cloud enveloping His Deity; and again in 
the direction of dividing and destroying 
the unity of His person in the definition of 
His dual nature." 



An Evening in the Storm 67 

The influence of this type of thinking, 
and this method of interpreting Scripture 
is still felt, and not until we can forget 
some of the conceptions of Christ which 
have been inherited from an age of theo- 
logical speculation and controversy, and 
come to a simple study of the New Testa- 
ment, can we approach a solution of our 
problem, or an answer to the age-long ques- 
tion — "How can Jesus be both human and 
divine?" 

When we come to a reading of the gospel 
narratives, unbiased by any notion of the 
kind of a Jesus they ought to reveal, we 
are struck, first of all, with the fact that the 
writers believed in the humanity of Jesus. 
They tell the story of his life as that of a 
man who lived and died in their midst. 
Two of the writers speak of his miraculous 
birth ; the others do not mention it. They 
tell us how he was recognized in the com- 
munities where he preached and in the syn- 
agogues where he taught as the son of 
Joseph the carpenter. His growth from 
childhood to manhood is pictured as that 
of any normal boy, and there is no hint 
that he had any special training at the 
hands of his parents which was not given 
to the other children in the family. His 
mother looked upon him as her son, and 



68 Evenings With the Master 

his family thought him beside himself 
because of his intense interest in his mis- 
sion. We are told of his weariness and 
hunger, and he was sleeping so soundly 
that he was not aware of the fury of 
the storm which threatened destruction. 
He was troubled in spirit many times, 
and in the presence of sorrow he shed 
tears of compassion. When his disciples 
insisted upon accurate knowledge of com- 
ing events he confessed that his knowledge 
was limited, that there were some things 
which he did not know. He confessed 
the limitation of his power, in leaving 
a certain city because he could do no 
mighty works there. In the face of death 
he acted like a man, and the cry of 
anguish from the cross was the cry of a 
human heart. Unaware of the tremendous 
significance of what they w r ere doing, and 
with a beauty and simplicity of style which 
has never been equaled, these unlearned 
men told the life-story of a man who had 
been their companion and friend. They do 
not in any way suggest that they had been 
living with a ghost, or a man who was act- 
ing a part. There is not the slightest evi- 
dence that the Jesus they are telling us 
about is a character which they have 
created to fit into any well worked out 



An Evening in the Storm 69 

plan. If Jesus was anything, we are con- 
vinced from the records that he was a 
human being. 

When we have lost the sense of the hu- 
manity of Jesus we have lost one of the 
most vital elements in the gospels. The 
writer of the epistle to the Hebrews dwells 
at length upon the value of a Saviour who 
knew what it was to be human. Paul glo- 
ries in a Saviour who has left the riches of 
heaven to experience for the sake of men 
the poverty of the earth. If Jesus was not 
really human how can we account for his 
temptation? WJiat shall we do with his 
experience in the garden? What shall we 
make of his death, if his humanity is not 
real? Do not those events in his life which 
most clearly mark his human nature, brand 
him as a mere actor and his life as a mere 
piece of stage play, if we are to believe 
that all the time he was essentially God and 
not man? If Jesus was any less than the 
human personality which the gospels pic- 
ture him to be, then, they have given us a 
false revelation of God. Take away the 
human Jesus and the world has lost its 
best friend. For it is not the limited, re- 
stricted, idealized Christ of the creeds and 
the theologies of men that has reached the 
heart of humanity ; but the free, human Je- 



70 Evenings With the Master 

sus who walked among men as one of them 
and who was interested in their struggles 
and problems. It was this Jesus whom the 
" common people heard gladly/' and it is 
this same loving, winsome personality, who 
will command the following of the common 
people today when Ave allow him to break 
through the walls which have been erected 
around him, and once more stand in their 
midst. For, quoting again from Dr. Van 
Dyke, "if the Father truly spared not His 
own Son, but delivered him up for us all, 
then the Father also suffered by sympathy, 
making an invisible sacrifice, an infinite 
surrender of love for our sakes. Then the 
Son also suffered, making a visible sac- 
rifice and pouring out his soul unto death 
to redeem us from the fear of death and 
the power of sin. And this becomes real 
to our faith, and potent upon our souls 
only when we see the human life of God, 
agonizing in the garden, tortured in the 
judgment-hall, and expiring upon the 
cross. Then we can say 

Oh Love Divine ! that stooped to share 
Our sharpest pang, our bitterest tear." 

But Jesus was more than human. The 
same men who saw in him an attractive 
human friend saw something more. They 



An Evening in the Storm 71 

saw in him ' ' the Christ the Son of the Liv- 
ing God." In Matthew's gospel he is 
called "Immanuel, which is, being inter- 
preted, God with us." Mark, whose gos- 
pel is undoubtedly the oldest of the four, 
begins his narrative as, "The beginning 
of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of 
God." Luke tells of the miraculous birth 
and records the song of the heavenly host, 
"Glory to God in the highest and on earth 
peace among men of good will." While 
John, writing out of a life of rich expe- 
rience in w T hich he had ample time to know 
all the facts and observe the power of the 
risen Christ in the new-born church, every- 
where speaks of Jesus as the Son of God 
and identifies Him as "the Word which 
had ever been with God, and was God, be- 
came flesh and dwelt among us." 

A great philosopher has said that a 
"great man condemns the world to the 
task of explaining him." This is what 
the disciples of Jesus sought to do in the 
gospels. Their explanation is written large 
on every page, but it is most accurately 
expressed in Peter's confession, "Thou 
art the Christ, the Son of the Living 
God. ' ' To them Jesus was what he claimed 
to be, the Son of God with power on earth 
to forgive sins, and this explained all. It 



72 Evenings With the Master 

is true that their faith was shaken at Cal- 
vary ; but after the resurrection it was re- 
vived and intensified, and in the exalted 
Christ, one and the same with the Jesus 
whom they had known in the flesh, they 
lived and through him found salvation for 
themselves and others. 

The miracles of Jesus have always been 
closely connected with any discussion of 
his person. The nature miracles are 
among the most important in the gospels. 
There are two ways of approaching the 
miracles of Jesus. One is to simply deny 
that they are possible; the other is to be- 
lieve in their possibility and historicity and 
try honestly to account for them. The first 
method is easy. It requires neither effort 
nor brains to deny things. The second 
method is not so easy. It requires a good 
measure of faith and keen intellectual abil- 
ity. 

The miracles of the New Testament are 
quite unlike those of any other literature. 
They differ widely from those of most an- 
cient peoples, and from those reported to 
have been performed by the priests and 
monks of the Koman church in the Dark 
Ages and Middle Ages. They do not ap- 
pear as the creations of any mind, but as 
the simple record of facts, things which 



An Evening in the Storm 73 

men have seen with their own eyes. There 
are two common ways of explaining these 
miracles today. The first, or the tradition- 
al method, holds the view that a miracle 
is a special intervention in the ordinary 
course of nature by which causes or effects 
are set aside for some special purpose. 
According to this view all the miracles of 
Jesus were for the purpose of attesting his 
divine nature and mission. They were con- 
tinued through the first three centuries 
and then gradually came to an end. This 
view is held by many good people, but 
more and more the mind which has accept- 
ed the conclusions of modern science finds 
itself in flat contradiction with this view, 
and ready to give up belief in the miracu- 
lous altogether. One of the deepest con- 
victions of the modern mind is that there 
are no mysteries which cannot find an ul- 
timate explanation in some law, known or 
unknown, and that the universe is not gov- 
erned by chance or by the caprice of a de- 
ity who is constantly interfering with its 
regular order. 

Now because of this objection to our tra- 
ditional and generally accepted view of the 
miraculous, which many feel is a just ob- 
jection, are we to give up our belief in mir- 
acles? The second method of explaining 



74 Evenings With the Master 

the miraculous in Christianity is an answer 
to this question, and strange as it may 
seem, this method rests upon two miracles. 
First, the resurrection of Jesus from the 
dead, and second, the miracle of his life 
and power in the life of the world. 

Says Chas. E. Jefferson, "In studying 
the evidence for the miracles in the New 
Testament, it is wise to begin with the 
study of the greatest miracle of them all — 
the resurrection of Jesus. St. Paul stakes 
all his teaching on the truth of the resur- 
rection. We can afford to do the same. 
For the resurrection of Jesus there is 
stronger proof than can be adduced in sup- 
port of any other event in ancient history. 
* * * * l n the course of his work 
Paul had occasion to write to the church 
which he had founded in Corinth. That 
letter has been preserved. It is a part of 
our New Testament. It was written within 
twenty-five years of the death of Jesus. 
That it was written by Paul is admitted by 
every sane critic. Men who have cut other 
parts of the New Testament to shreds have 
stayed their hands on coming to this first 
letter to the Corinthians. If this letter is 
not genuine, then we can give credence to 
no historical document whatsoever. In this 



An Evening in the Storm 75 

letter, Paul takes up the resurrection of 
Jesus. Among other things he says : 'I de- 
livered unto you first of all that which I 
also received. How that Christ died for 
our sins according to the scriptures, and 
that he was buried and raised the third day 
according to the scriptures, and that he ap- 
peared to Peter, and then to the twelve, 
then he appeared to above five hundred 
persons at once, of whom the greater part 
remain until now.' * * * That Paul 
believed that Jesus rose from the dead 
does not admit of question." 

But whatever happened at the tomb of 
Jesus we know that something has hap- 
pened since that day. History bears wit- 
ness to the power of the risen Christ in the 
life of the early church and in the progress 
of civilization. No man has ever measured 
heroes and great men like Carlyle and this 
is the way he set Jesus apart, with earth's 
greatest men ten thousand leagues behind : 
"He walked in Judea eighteen hundred 
years ago; his sphere-melody flowing in 
wild native tones took captive the ravished 
souls of men, and being of a truth sphere- 
melody, still flows and sounds, though now 
with thousandfold accompaniments and 
rich symphonies, through all our hearts 



76 Evenings With the Master 

modulates and divinely leads them. ' ' Look- 
ing backward upon every movement which 
has been for the liberty of the race, upon 
every crusade of mercy, upon every strug- 
gle for righteousness and justice, upon ev- 
ery impulse toward social service we see 
emerging the figure of the risen Christ, 
standing with outstretched arms to lift a 
sinful and heart-broken world back to the 
Father 's love. It is true, as John Oxen- 
ham has so beautifully said, that 

Wherever one repenting soul 
Prays, in its agonies of pain, 
By God's sweet grace to be made whole — 
There, Christ is born again. 

Wherever — bond of ancient thrall — 
A strong soul bursts its shackling chain, 
And upward strains to meet the call — 
There, Christ is born again. 

Wherever vision of the Light 
Disturbs the sleeping souls of men, 
Night trails away its shadowy flight — 
And Christ is born again. 

Wherever soul in travail turns, 
And climbs the barriers that constrain, 
With steady cheer Hope's sweet lamp burns 
And Christ is born again. 



An Evening in the Storm 77 

Where one foul thing is purged away, 
And life delivered of one stain, 
Love rims with gold the coming day — 
And Christ is born again. 

There is, there can be, no greater miracle 
than this undying Christ in the life of the 
world. 

The second method explains the mira- 
cles, not as signs which are needed to 
prove the divinity of Jesus, but as signs 
which were possible because of the divin- 
ity of Jesus. It accounts for the miracles 
through Christ, rather than accounting for 
Christ through the miracles. This does 
not contradict the conclusions of modern 
science. For, in his miracles, Jesus did not 
necessarily suspend or interfere in any 
way with the established laws of the uni- 
verse. What he did, as the natural thing 
for the Son of God to do, was to use some 
of the unknown laws of nature which all 
scientists admit do exist. If in the realm 
of the physical men are continually discov- 
ering new laws, why not admit that there 
are others yet to be discovered, and that 
some of them actually were discovered and 
used by the Son of God? Many still insist 
on accepting the traditional view. I do not 
insist upon the acceptance of this other 
view, or that it is the only view which may 



78 Evenings With the Master 

be taken ; but I do maintain that with this 
view the Christian can accept most of the 
conclusions of modern science and still be 
Christian, and can meet the most subtle 
criticism of our age without doing violence 
in any way to the person of Christ as he is 
revealed in the New Testament scriptures. 
It is the Jesus of the gospels, both human 
and divine, that the world needs today. A 
Jesus who can sound the depths of the hu- 
man heart and win its love, and who, at the 
same time, as the Son of God can release 
forces to quell some of the fierce storms 
against w^hich humanity is battling, must 
be at the center of our message to this age. 
We need such a Jesus as Richard Watson 
Gilder pictures in "The Passing Christ, " 

Behold Him now where He comes! 
Not the Christ of our subtle creeds, 
But the light of our hearts, of our homes, 
Of our hopes, our prayers, our needs; 
The brother of want and blame, 
The lover of women and men, 
With a love that puts to shame 
All passions of mortal ken. 

W $r W 

Ah no, thou life of the heart, 
Never shalt thou depart! 
Not till the leaven of God 
Shall lighten each human clod; 



An Evening in the Storm 79 

Not till the world shall climb 
To thy height serene, sublime, 
Shall the Christ who enters our door 
Pass to return no more. 

Many are the days we close to enter up- 
on a stormy night. The waves of loneli- 
ness, of passion, and perhaps the winds of 
an outraged conscience, almost engulf us. 
But if we have taken Jesus with us there 
is no need for fear. The same voice which 
calmed the troubled seas and brought 
peace to the anxious hearts of the disciples, 
can calm every troublesome element in our 
lives. Oh, those stormy nights, fearful al- 
most beyond description, because we have 
not had Jesus with us! At the close of a 
day — at the close of this day will you not 
take him with vou as a Saviour? 



AN EVENING WITH THE HUNGRY 
MULTITUDE 



When evening fell, the disciples came up to 
him and said, "It is a desert place and the day 
is now gone; send off the crowds to buy food 
for themselves in the villages." Jesus said to 
them, "They do not need to go away; give them 
some food yourselves." They said, "We have 
only five loaves with us and two fish." He said, 
"Bring them here to me." Then he ordered the 
crowds to recline on the grass, and after taking 
the five loaves and the two fish he looked up to 
heaven, Messed them, and after breaking the 
loaves handed them to the disciples, and the 
disciples handed them to the crowds. They all 
ate and had enough; besides, they picked up the 
fragments left over and filled twelve baskets 
with them. The men who ate numbered about 
five thousand, apart from the women and chil- 
dren,— Matt. 14:15-21. 



AN EVENING WITH THE HUNGRY 
MULTITUDE 

The news of the death of John the Bap- 
tist, the probable desire of Jesus to leave 
the dominions of Herod, and the great 
need of the disciples for rest and an op- 
portunity to tell Jesus of the results of 
their mission tour from which they had 
just returned, led the little company to 
cross the Sea of Galilee to an uninhabited 
region on the northeastern shore. But the 
crowd, which had given them no leisure 
even to eat, watched the course of their 
boat and followed on foot around the head 
of the sea, their numbers increased as John 
suggests, by pilgrims on their way to the 
passover at Jerusalem. As usual, Jesus 
was moved at the sight of this needy multi- 
tude, and the act of love and compassion 
which this evening hour embodies, is per- 
haps, the most important of his nature mir- 
acles. It is the only miracle recorded in 
all four gospels, and stands out promi- 
nently in the record of his life. 

We have dealt with the miraculous ele- 
ment in Christianity in another sermon of 
this series. In the discussion of this mira- 

83 



84 Evenings With the Master 

cle we shall think only of its practical mes- 
sage for modern disciples and for the 
church. The emergency which the disci- 
ples faced is very real in our day. Around 
us, the multitudes, running into the mil- 
lions, are surging and pressing day and 
night. And they are very hungry. How 
shall we face them and "give them to eat?" 
Perhaps this evening experience of the 
Master and his first disciples can teach us 
the way. 

Notice the contrast in the attitude of Je- 
sus and his disciples in the face of human 
need and a great emergency. The disci- 
ples said, "Send off the crowds to buy food 
for themselves in the villages." Jesus 
said, "They do not need to go away, give 
them some food yourselves." They pro- 
tested, "We have only five loaves with us 
and two fishes." Jesus said, "Bring 
them to me," and he took what resources 
they had and blessed them and the result 
was marvelous. The crowds ate and were 
full, and there was more than enough left 
to take care of the needs of the disciples. 

It has been suggested that there were 
two classes of men among the disciples; 
those who had compassion without faith, 
and those who were selfish and thinking 
more about what thev themselves should 



An Evening With the Multitude 85 

eat than the needs of the multitudes. The 
very fact that certain of the disciples dis- 
covered the suffering of the crowds shows 
a sympathetic appreciation of their needs. 
But along with this sympathetic apprecia- 
tion there was very little faith in their abil- 
ity to minister to those needs. " Along 
with their sensitive discernment of the 
need they had a paralyzing conception of 
their poverty. They appeared to say to 
themselves, ' The need is real, but the task 
is gigantic! Our resources are only a 
handful and it cannot be done ! ' Did you 
ever read a more discouraging summary 
than that which they presented to the 
Lord? The place is barren, the time is 
late, the people are many, the need is 
great ! ' ' 

From what we know of the disciples 
some of them were intensely selfish. It is 
not hard to believe that the self-seeking of 
one or two made them unconscious of the 
needs of the multitude. The provisions on 
hand would make only a meager meal for 
themselves, and tired and weary as they 
must have been, they protested against giv- 
ing these away. Someone has imagined the 
following argument by one of the disci- 
ples when Jesus commands them to give 
him the five loaves and two fish : 



86 Evenings With the Master 

"This will never do. The Lord is all 
right when it comes to preaching and tell- 
ing us about heaven and how to get there ; 
but he does not understand the practical 
side of life. He will give away the last 
crumb we have, and we will all go hungry- 
out here in the desert. Let us go away 
from this crowd over on some grassy spot, 
and try and get the Lord to come with us, 
while we divide these five barley loaves 
and two small fish among ourselves." 

Is the contrast between Jesus and his 
first disciples in the face of a great emer- 
gency so different from that of Jesus and 
his church today? Are not these two class- 
es of men with us yet? In the face of a 
hungry world, and the greatest emergency 
the church has ever faced we are saying 
with the disciples, "Send off the crowds to 
have their hunger satisfied elsewhere." 
Every year a great procession of aged dis- 
ciples who have kept the faith and light 
burning in some of our best churches, pass 
by appealing for a place in our Homes for 
the Aged. But the doors of many of these 
institutions are closed and we are saying, 
"Send them off to the poorhouses, or to 
the homes erected by organizations outside 
the church. We cannot, with the meager 
support which our Benevolent work has 



An Evening With the Multitude 87 

been getting, take care of them. ' ' Is there 
anything more pathetic or tragic than help- 
less and poverty-stricken old age? Only 
one thing, and that is the church of the 
Living Christ unable to care for its own. 

The cries of little children, homeless 
children, fill the air today as never be- 
fore. The war, the terrible scourge of 
Influenza which has swept the land for 
two years, the terrific pressure of the high 
cost of living, all these have broken up 
thousands of homes and thrown thousands 
of children upon the world. And in the 
face of this emergency the doors of our 
Orphanages are closed because there is no 
room. And many modern disciples rather 
than make possible the building of larger 
Orphanages are saying, "Send them away 
to the state institutions. We are unable to 
care for these little ones in the name of 
Jesus. " 

And the aged ministers of Christ, those 
who have spent the best years of their lives 
in toil and sacrifice for the church we pro - 
fess to love, these also appeal in vain for 
a compensation that is at all worthy of 
their years of service. In the face of this 
dire need we are saying, ' ' Send them away, 
these saints of God, to the poorhouse or 
anywhere they may be able to find enough 

to keep body and soul together. ' ' 



88 Evenings With the Master 

The multitudes in India who are asking 
for the gospel, we would send away to their 
heathen gods. The millions of black men 
in Africa who are responding in such a 
marvelous way to the gospel appeal where 
it is preached, we would send away to the 
Moslem priest and delay the coming of the 
Kingdom in that continent for another cen- 
tury. In China and Japan where western 
learning and industry are revolutionizing 
the life of the people, and where there is 
an earnest appeal for the message of 
Christianity, we would send the multitudes 
away to their materialism and atheism. 
Just as Jesus rebuked his disciples so he is 
rebuking his church. In the face of our 
home and foreign needs he says, "They 
do not need to go away, give ye them to 
eat." This is his ringing challenge to the 
church ! 

In the face of this challenge we have two 
classes of people with which to deal ; those 
who have compassion without faith, and 
those who are purely selfish. The first 
class always knows what it is impossible 
to do, but it does not have enough faith to 
attempt the impossible. It is made up of 
people who are moved to the depths of 
their souls, and shed many tears when the 



An Evening With the Multitude 89 

appeal is made, but who always vote that 
the task is too large to attempt. Their re- 
sources are always so small that they can- 
not be of any possible service in the emer- 
gency. Then, there are the purely selfish. 
It is pure selfishness on the part of the 
members that has kept many churches 
poor, and hindered their fellowship in the 
larger work of the Kingdom. One does 
not have to strain his imagination very 
much to hear some modern disciples — dea- 
cons and elders in the church — saying: 
1 i Our preacher may be a good speaker and 
a bright man. He can tell men what to 
do to be saved and get to heaven. He is 
sound in the faith, but when it comes to 
practical business affairs he has very 
little sense. Why, he would have us take 
our resources and help support an Or- 
phanage in St. Louis, an Old People's 
Home in Jacksonville, or a Hospital or 
a mission station on some foreign field, 
when it looks very much as if we would 
not be able to pay our own expenses and 
might have to close the doors of our own 
church. Let us talk him out of this notion 
(or more often let us get another preach- 
er) and simply pay our own running ex- 
penses, and come apart from the world of 
suffering and need on Sunday and have 



90 Evenings With the Master 

our own services in our own church." And 
because we have listened to these men of 
little faith and selfish motives the multi- 
tudes have not been fed and great reproach 
has fallen upon the church of Jesus Christ. 

Now notice the method of Jesus. What 
he really said to the disciples was, " Bring 
what little resources you have to me and 
let me make use of them." It was not a 
question of how much they had, but of a 
willingness to let Jesus use it to the best 
advantage. Here we find a fundamental 
principle which has been largely over- 
looked in our planning for the kingdom. 
We have always said in the face of some 
great need, "We have no resources, we 
cannot do anything." It is not a question 
of how much we have. It is a question of 
our attitude toward what we do have. Is 
it ours, or are we simply holding it in trust 
for God? As disciples have we made a 
complete surrender to Jesus? When we 
accepted him as Lord and Master did we 
do it with reservations? Did we say, 
"Lord I believe that thou art the Christ 
the Son of the Living God and I accept 
Thee as my personal Saviour, but I reserve 
the right to do as I please with my life and 
my material possessions." Now that is 



An Evening With the Multitude 91 

not what any of us said, but that is what 
many of us have done. We have lived our 
own lives regardless of the claims of Christ 
upon them. We have bought the things 
which satisfied our own selfish desires with 
our money, and then doled out a small per 
cent of what was left to meet the needs of 
the world. If the membership of the 
churches of America would give even a 
small per cent of their wealth to Jesus 
Christ, there would be no need for appeals 
from any pulpit, and the hungry multi- 
tudes would be fed. 

I do not know how much you have, but 
I do know that Jesus needs it and needs 
it now. We are passing through a world 
crisis and the greatest for the church since 
the days of the apostles. The next few 
years will determine whether the next gen- 
eration is to be Christian or Pagan, wheth- 
er a fundamental democracy shall be the 
foundation of this earth's governments, 
or whether the old philosophy of " might 
makes right " shall again come into its 
own. We have witnessed the magnificent 
spectacle of a great people placing their all 
at the disposal of their government in an 
hour of need. Are the Christians of Amer- 
ica more loyal to their government than to 



92 Evenings With the Master 

their Christ? What we have invested for 
the government will pay interest. But 
some will never live to enjoy this interest. 
What you have invested in the church will 
also pay interest, and whether yon live or 
die that interest will be paid in full. Looked 
at in the light of eternity, how paltry the 
interest on a Liberty bond, beside the con- 
sciousness that your money has saved a liv- 
ing soul and brought a wandering son back 
to the Father 's Love ! Let us put our re- 
sources where Jesus can use them. 

"They all ate and had enough," and 
there was plenty left for the disciples. 
This was the result of Jesus' miracle. The 
same miracle can happen in any age. 
When the disciples place their resources at 
the disposal of the Master the needs of the 
world will be met and the local church will 
prosper. What might have happened if 
the disciples had refused to give up the 
loaves and fish ? Three things would have 
happened. The disciples would have had a 
very limited supply of food for themselves. 
The multitudes would have fainted from 
hunger. And the most tragic of all, these 
men would have lost Christ, for he would 
not have continued with them as a party to 
their faithlessness and selfishness. The 
church that shuts it ears to the world-plea 



An Evening With the Multitude 93 

for help may have enough left to care for 
its local needs, but its resources will al- 
ways be limited. When the church turns 
its back upon the world and admits by its 
lack of action that it cannot meet the deep- 
est needs of humanity, then order will re- 
vert to chaos, and the race will be doomed. 
And when the church thus proves itself 
afraid or unwilling to obey the great com- 
mission of its Master, it will, so far as its 
life is concerned, have made null and void 
his last great promise, "Lo, I am with you 
always, even unto the end." When it 
does this it will be a Christless church. 

The Master who fed the hungry multi- 
tudes and would inspire us to do the same, 
wants more than our material possessions. 
He wants our lives. How do we know what 
he might do with these human lives of ours 
if we were to give him a chance? With 
this thought in mind a young woman who 
had dedicated her life to the mission field 
wrote these beautiful words: u As I was 
thinking of this today," she says, "that 
marvelous masterpiece of art came before 
me, the Sistine Madonna. I thought, what 
if, when the great artist had that canvas 
before him upon which he wanted to put 
the picture of the little Christ Child, a 
little child — possibly a little child of his 



94 Evenings With the Master 

own — had stolen into the room at night 
when he had laid aside his brush and 
ceased his work on that canvas, and the 
little one, thinking that it too could paint 
a picture, had picked up the brush and be- 
gan to do his work — what would he have 
found when he came back to the canvas 
in the morning ? Nothing but a great daub, 
and the painting would have been ruined. 
And that is what we are doing with our 
lives. Jesus Christ would have within us 
the very image of himself. That is the 
kind of work he wants to do ; and if you 
and I would give him all this life and 
let him wield the brush, he would so 
transform these lives that there would be 
all the beauty and power and sweetness 
of Christ in them. But in our little, child- 
ish way, we go along and take up the 
brush. We do not know how to paint, 
nor do we know how to reproduce in these 
lives of ours the very image of Jesus 
Christ. What we would do is the very 
thing that would mar that image, and 
that is why when the world looks at us 
they see so little of him. He cannot do it 
unless he has all our life." At this evening 
hour shall we not let the great Master Ar- 
tist take our lives and fashion them as he 
will for the perfection of our character and 
for the salvation of the world? 



AN EVENING IN BETHANY 



Six days before the festival Jesus came to 
Bethany, where Lazarus stayed {whom Jesus 
had raised from the dead). They gave a stepper 
for him there; Martha waited on him, and Laz- 
arus was among tlwse who reclined at the table 
beside him. Then Mary, taking a pound of ex- 
pensive perfume, real nard, anointed the feet 
of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair till 
the house was filled with the scent of the per- 
fume. One of his disciples, Judas Iscariot 
(who was to betray him), said, "Why was not 
this perfume sold for ten pounds, and the money 
given to the poor?" (Not tltat he cared for the 
poor; he said this because he was a thief, and 
because he carried the money-box and pilfered 
what was put in.) Then said Jesus, "Let her 
alone, let her keep what she has for the day of 
my burial. You have always the poor beside 
you, but you have not always me." — John 12: 
1-8. 



AN EVENING IN BETHANY 

Matthew and Mark record this feast in 
Bethany as taking place on Thursday eve- 
ning just two days before the passover. 
John in his account, locates it six days be- 
fore the passover. Matthew and Mark 
state that the supper was held in the house 
of Simon the leper, while John simply 
says, * ' they gave a supper for him there. ' ' 
We are not interested in harmonizing these 
accounts, and it is safe to assume that the 
records all speak of the same event. For 
the purpose of our discussion the point of 
interest and importance is the guests who 
were present, and the beautiful act of sac- 
rifice and sentiment on the part of Mary 
as it is vividly contrasted with the selfish 
criticism of Judas. 

Although the Master was sitting at a 
feast in the presence of his friends, his 
heart was sad, for the shadow of the cross 
had already fallen across his soul. The 
plot of his enemies deepened, and slowly 
but surely he knew that they were drawing 
their nets around him. And while his mind 
was filled with thoughts of the approach- 
ing end and of the separation which it 

97 



98 Evenings With the Master 

would mean, none save one in that company 
seemed sympathetic enough to enter into 
his thoughts. The loving heart of Mary 
had divined the thoughts of her Master. 
She felt that they would not have him with 
them much longer, and the thought filled 
her heart with unspeakable sorrow. Jesus 
meant much to Mary. He had given her 
back her brother from the dead. From 
the glimpses we get here and there of the 
visits of Jesus to Bethany, she must have 
sat many times at his feet drinking in the 
words of life, choosing the good part which 
could not be taken away from her. Hers 
was a sorrow and a love that cannot be ex- 
pressed in words, and so it overflowed in 
this beautiful poetic action, which told 
more movingly than any words could pos- 
sibly tell, how deeply her soul was stirred. 
Speaking of this scene Dr. James Denny 
has said, " Uncalculating love inspired the 
deed, and only uncalculating love could un- 
derstand it. The disciples found fault be- 
cause they tried to estimate by the senses 
an act which had no meaning except to the 
soul. They called it ' waste.' So it was, 
by any utilitarian standard ; the three hun- 
dred pence could bring in no interest now ; 
they had been ' thrown away' upon Jesus. 
But this does not prove that the action was 



An Evening in Bethany 99 

wrong; it only proves that there are ac- 
tions which have to be judged by other and 
higher than "utilitarian standards. What a 
miserable world it would be if no money 
was ever spent in it except with a view to 
interest in kind. Does any one suppose 
that Judas was a better friend to the poor 
than Mary? The outburst of uncalculating 
love shown by this woman went to the heart 
of Jesus; she had done for once what he 
was doing all the time — ' wasting' his life, 
' thro wing it away' for those who were not 
worthy of it. The fire he came to cast on 
the earth had flamed up for an instant in 
one soul. She had given a glorious illus- 
tration of the spirit which was in Jesus, 
and she is rewarded by having her story 
told in all the world to the end of time." 
Aside from Jesus, two characters stand 
out prominently in John's story of this 
supper — Mary and Judas. In the action 
of the one we see the ascendency of a soul 
to the place, where for the sake of its Lord, 
it unconsciously and spontaneously makes 
the supreme offering of the best which it 
has upon the altar of love. Mary is one of 
the world's greatest examples of those who 
can give without counting the cost. In the 
action of the other we see the degeneracy 
of a soul, the final expression of a soul that 



100 Evenings With the Master 

has become completely deadened through 
self-seeking and greed. Judas is a tragic 
example of that cold, loveless spirit which 
never gives because of real love, but only 
grudgingly and from a sense of duty. In 
this evening with the Master we see one 
soul revealing itself from the heights of 
love and another revealing itself from the 
depths of selfishness and greed. 

Very little is known of the life of Mary. 
We meet her only a few times, and this 
only for a moment, in the record of the gos- 
pels. But this gracious act of love reveals 
her soul. She had been with Jesus enough 
to catch his spirit, to be filled with a love 
which was akin to that of the Father in 
heaven. I do not believe that Mary had 
planned this action before hand. It was 
not the kind of a gift one makes after care- 
ful planning. It was the land of a gift 
that comes when the full realization of a 
great love dawns upon the soul. Slowly 
but surely through the days and the months 
Mary had been drawn' nearer to the 
Master. That which began in a mere 
wonder at the words and teaching of Jesus, 
which was enriched by his visits to Beth- 
any, and which deepened into a wonderful 
gratitude at the restoration of her broth- 
er from the dead, had now ripened into an 



An Evening in Bethany 101 

uncalculating love which could stop at 
nothing short of the best which it pos- 
sessed. This gift represents that which a 
soul will do when the real heights of love 
have been reached. In an hour, and under 
conditions which had not been thought of, 
the full flower of love blossomed out to en- 
rich the atmosphere with its holy fra- 
grance. It was the unconscious revelation 
of a soul at its highest. 

With love that counted not the cost, 
She broke the alabaster; filled 
With but one thought : It was her friend 
For whom the precious gift was spilled. 

The records have more to say of Judas 
than of Mary, and yet the brief record of 
his acts is not needed to reveal his char- 
acter. This act alone tells the story. Any- 
thing which was given without hope or evi- 
dence of tangible returns in kind was a 
foolish waste in his eyes. So low had his 
soul descended into the mire of greed that 
he had lost all power to measure the deeds 
of unselfish love. The criticism of Judas 
reveals the depths to which a soul can go 
when greed becomes the master. It also 
reveals the essential hypocrisy of such a 
soul. Such a greed always tries to justify 



102 Evenings With the Master 

itself. Judas was a hypocrite. He had 
dreamed of a worldly kingdom and its glo- 
ry. He had planned for himself an impor- 
tant place in that kingdom. A year before 
this incident he had seen this hope shat- 
tered. After the feeding of the five thou- 
sand when Jesus refused the demands of 
the multitudes to become a king and finally 
renounced all claims to any temporal pow- 
er," "many of his disciples drew back and 
would not associate with him any longer. 
So Jesus said to the twelve, 'You do not 
want to go, too?' Simon Peter answered 
him, 'Lord, who are we to go to ? You have 
got words of eternal life, and we believe, 
we are certain, that you are the holy One 
of God. ' Jesus answered them, i Did I not 
choose you, the twelve ? And yet one of you 
is a devil!' (He meant Judas the son of 
Simon Iscariot; for Judas was to betray 
him — and he was one of the twelve)." A 
very recent critic of Judas, Edward A. 
George, says in speaking of this incident, 
"The Satanic thing in Judas Iscariot at 
this crisis, which warranted Jesus' se- 
verity, was not his misunderstanding of 
the kingdom, nor his disappointment, but 
his hypocrisy." It was because Judas, 
rather than abandon Jesus and his cause, 
"as did the many who went back and 



An Evening in Bethany 103 

walked with him no more," 4 ^ still persisted 
in remaining among the apostles with a 
feigned loyalty," that Jesus called him a 
devil. And back of this hypocrisy, as John 
clearly implies in his statements, was that 
greed which he hoped to satisfy through 
pilfering with the money-box of the twelve. 
The criticism of Judas in the presence of 
unselfish love, revealed the degeneracy of 
his soul better than all the words of the 
evangelists. "We can well believe that such 
a man would betray his Master for thirty 
pieces of silver. It is a picture of a human 
soul at its lowest. 

In some unexpected hour every one of us 
will write our own biography; reveal our 
inmost soul to the gaze of an onlooking 
public. In that hour the soul that has been 
living on a high level and ascending to- 
ward the heights, will tell the story of an 
unselfish love. And in the same hour the 
soul that has been feeding on low things 
and that has descended to the depths, will 
reveal its ugly character. Never has there 
been greater need for big, unselfish souls. 
Never has the peril of descending into 
the depths of greed and selfishness been 
greater. 



104 Evenings With the Master 

The Master is surrounded today by his 
enemies. The politicians, the leaders of a 
greedy industrialism and commercialism, 
the apostles of radicalism in the ranks of 
labor, the bigoted and zealous advocates 
of a divided church, the men who are fat- 
tening off the pleasures of the people — all 
these are fast drawing the net around the 
simple Jesus of the gospels, and would cru- 
cify him if they could. It is an hour when 
the souls of his disciples are being laid 
bare. It is an hour when those who pro- 
fess to be his followers are revealing the 
real character of their souls. The great 
need is for multitudes of disciples who will 
sense the present situation as clearly as 
Mary sensed the situation at that evening 
hour. Mary acted only when she realized 
how much she loved Jesus, what he really 
meant to her, and what it would mean to 
lose him. The heart of the Christian world 
must face these two questions. How much 
do we really love Jesus, how much does he 
mean to us? What would happen to the 
world if sinful men should have their way 
and crowd him out of its life? I do not 
believe the heart of the church is degener- 
ate. I am confident that when the men and 
women who have made the church what it 
is, and on whose heart the burden of the 



An Evening in Bethany 105 

churches' life rests in these critical days 
sense the real situation, there will be such 
an overflow of sacrificial love as we have 
never s'eein. When that hour comes the 
souls of men and women who have been as- 
cending towards the heights because they 
have spent many hours in the presence of 
the Master, will reveal themselves in a su- 
preme offering poured out at his feet. The 
coming of the Kingdom of God and the re- 
demption of a race w^aits upon this hour. 

In a little play called "The WiU,'> 
James M. Barrie has traced the course of 
"that strange sickness of the soul called 
greed, " and has revealed the fact that the 
peril which brought Judas to his tragic end 
is still very real in human life. The set- 
ting of the play is the office of a London 
lawyer. Three times the central charac- 
ter, Philip Ross, comes to this office for 
the purpose of making a will. When he 
first calls he is a young office clerk with a 
small legacy, and is accompanied by his 
youthful and loving bride. She is weeping 
at the mere suggestion of any instrument 
so suggestive of death as a will. Philip 
wishes to make the will in a single sen- 
tence, leaving everything to her. To this 
she will not hear, and succeeds in carrying 
her point of having two of her husband's 



106 Evenings With the Master 

poverty-stricken cousins provided with a 
hundred pounds a year out of the estate, 
and one hundred pounds a year left to a 
convalescent hospital. The old lawyer is 
amused and touched and as they leave he 
says, in response to the apology for her 
excitement, "Yes, it is ridiculous. But 
don't change; especially if you get on in 
the world. " 

Then follows a conversation in which the 
old lawyer discovers that his trusted clerk, 
Surtees, has come from a specialist with 
the verdict that it is too late for an opera- 
tion. "But you didn't have it long ago," 
protested the old lawyer. "Not to my 
knowledge, sir; but he says it was there 
all the same, always in me, a black spot, 
not so big as a pin's head, but waiting to 
spread and destroy me in the fulness of 
time. All the rest of me is sound as a 
bell." The old lawyer, "it seems damna- 
bly unfair." "I don't know, sir. He says 
there's a spot of that kind in pretty nigh 
all of us, and if we don't look out it does 
for us in the end. * * * He called it the 
accursed thing. I think he meant we 
should know of it and be on the watch. ' ' 

When Philip Boss appears in the law- 
yer's office the second time he is one of the 



An Evening in Bethany 107 

rising merchants of London and has ac- 
cumulated an estate of 70,000 pounds. He 
comes alone, but his wife, now a woman of 
forty, sure of herself and not so much 
dressed suggests the author as "richly up- 
holstered/' comes in unexpectedly to see 
that her husband does nothing foolish. 
There are hot words over Philip's inten- 
tion to leave her only a life-interest in the 
estate instead of outright possession. Each 
refers to the estate as "my" money. The 
tender solicitude which had been so much 
in evidence on their first visit was gone. 
"One would think you were afraid of my 
marrying again," she reproaches him. 
' ' One would think you were looking for my 
dying," he angrily retorts. The allowance 
to the elderly cousins in poverty is, at her 
insistence, reduced from one hundred to 
fifty pounds. She objects to his leaving a 
thousand pounds to the hospital, but he fi- 
nally clings to a bequest of five hundred 
pounds, because he wants to "make a 
splash in hospitals." This second will is 
made by Robert, a son of the old lawyer 
who made the first one. 

On the last visit, Sir Philip Ross, now 
knighted, comes alone. The old lawyer, 
long retired from active practice has come 
into the office and is asleep in a chair be- 



108 Evenings With the Master 

fore the fire. Sir Philip's wife is dead, and 
he comes to cancel all previous wills, espe- 
cially for the purpose of cutting off without 
a cent his two children, his son having 
proved a "rotter" and the daughter hav- 
ing married without his consent. Ignoring 
the protests of the young lawyer and in a 
fit of anger he starts to dictate, "I hereby 
revoke all former wills and testaments, 
and I leave everything of which I die pos- 
sessed — I leave it — I leave it — My God, I 
don't know what to do with it. * * * The 
money I've won with my blood. God in 
heaven ! Would that old man (referring to 
the old lawyer) like it to play with? If I 
bring it to you in sacks will you throw it 
out of the window for me ? * * * (Taking 
a paper from his pocket) Here take this. 
It has the names and addresses of the half- 
dozen men I've fought with most for gold; 
and I've beaten them. Draw up a will 
leaving all my money to be divided between 
them, with my respectful curses, and bring 
it to my house and I'll sign it." 

When the young lawyer starts to pro- 
test against such a will, the old man by the 
fire rouses up and asks, "What's that 
about a will?" His mind is wandering. 
When introduced to Sir Philip he recalls 
the making of the first mil. ' ' Poor souls, 



An Evening in Bethany 109 

it all ended unhappily yon know," he mut- 
tered. "Yes I know," says Sir Philip. 
"Why did things go wrong, sir? I sit and 
wonder and I can't find the beginning." 
Then the old lawyer, his mind wandering 
again, repeats the words of his old clerk, 
now dead for many years, "That's the sad 
part of it. There was never a beginning. 
It was always there. He told me all about 
it. * * # It was always in them — a spot no 
bigger than a pin's head, but waiting to 
spread and destroy them in the fulness of 
time * * * if they had been on the watch. 
But they didn't know, so they weren't on 
the watch. Poor souls * * *. It's called 
the accursed thing. It gets nearly every- 
body in the end, if they don't look out." 
When the old man ceases speaking Sir 
Philip slowly tears up the paper he had 
given to the young lawyer and says, "A 
spot no bigger than a pin's head. I wish 
I could help some young things before 
that spot has time to spread and destroy 
them as it has destroyed me and mine." 
The young lawyer, "With such a large for- 
tune — " Sir Philip (summing up his life) 
"It can't be done with money, sir." 

In that hour when you unconsciously 
write the story of your life and reveal the 
character of your soul what will it be? 



110 Evenings With the Master 

Have you planted the flower of unselfish 
love in your heart, and are you watering 
and nourishing it in the presence of the 
Master so that its fragrance may fill the 
earth when it is poured out in some great 
offering ? Or is the ' i accursed thing, ' ' that 
small black spot of greed and selfishness 
being nursed in the bosom of your soul to 
spread and destroy you in the fulness 
of time? In the presence of the Master 
this night, may we search our hearts and 
answer these questions for our own souls. 






AN EVENING WITH THE DIS- 
CIPLES; BEFOEE HIS 
DEATH 



On the first day of unleavened bread (the day 
when the paschal lamb was sacrificed) his dis- 
ciples said to him, "Where do you want us to go 
and prepare for you to eat the passover?" So 
he despatched two of his disciples, telling them, 
"Go into the city and you will meet a man car- 
rying a water-jar; follow Mm, and whatever 
house he goes into, tell the owner that the 
Teacher says, ( Where is my room thai I may 
eat the passover there with my disciples? 9 He 
will show you a large room upstairs, with 
couches spread, all ready; prepare the passover 
for us there." The disciples went away into the 
city and found it was as he had told them. So 
they prepared the passover, and when evening 
fell he arrived along with the twelve. — Mark 
14:12-17. 



AN EVENING WITH THE DISCI- 
PLES; BEFORE HIS DEATH 

On Thursday morning of the last week 
of the earthly life of Jesus, he sent two 
of his disciples into the city to make prep- 
arations for the eating of the passover. 
And toward evening when the gathering 
night would prevent all needless observa- 
tion he and his disciples walked from Beth- 
any to the upper room in Jerusalem. There 
he spent the last evening before his death 
with his inner-circle of friends and follow- 
ers. 

This evening was full of meaning to the 
disciples. As they took their places around 
the table there was doubtless some trouble 
and discussion as to the order of their 
seats. Then, because there happened to be 
no servant in the room to wash their feet, 
this common act of hospitality had been 
neglected. Noticing their attitude in re- 
gard to the chief seats, and that their feet 
had not been washed, Jesus "rose from his 
place, and taking off his upper garments, 
tied a towel around his waist. He then 
poured some water into a basin, and began 
to wash his disciples ' feet, and to wipe them 

113 



114 Evenings With the Master 

with the towel which was tied around him. ' ' 
Thus did Jesus exemplify his great mission 
of service to the world and impress his dis- 
ciples with its supreme importance. 

Then follows the institution of the 
Lord's Supper, and Jesus' promise, "And 
I tell you that I shall never, after this, 
drink of this juice of the grape until that 
day when I shall drink it new with you in 
the kingdom of my Father." The tragic 
touch of the evening comes in the pointing 
out of the betrayer and the heart-search- 
ing which Jesus * words bring to all of the 
disciples. 

After Judas goes out, for perhaps two 
hours, Jesus speaks to the rest, of those 
things which were nearest his heart, and 
in this farewell conversation we have some 
of the gems of his matchless teaching. 
"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Be- 
lieve in God; believe also in me. In my 
Father's house are many mansions. If it 
were not so I would have told you, for I go 
to prepare a place for you. * * * I am the 
way, the truth, and the life ; no man com- 
eth to the Father except by me. * * * This 
is my command, love one another as I have 
loved you. No man can give greater 
proof of his love than by laying down his 
life for his friends — I have spoken to you 



An Evening Before His Death 115 

in this way so that in me you might have 
peace. In the world yon will find trouble ; 
yet, take courage, for I have conquered 
the world." At the close of this con- 
versation, just before going out into the 
garden of agony and on to meet his en- 
emies, Jesus breathed that beautiful in- 
tercessory prayer for his disciples which 
revealed his deep love for them. "0 
righteous Father, though the world did 
not know thee, I know thee ; and these men 
know that thou hast sent me as thy mes- 
senger. I have made thee known to them, 
and I will do so still ; that the love that thou 
hast had for me may be in their hearts, and 
that I may be in them also." 

Jesus knew that the hearts of his disci- 
ples were troubled, and in this conversa- 
tion he is seeking to steady them against 
the day of his death. As a remedy for 
their troubled hearts, and as this steadying 
power, he offers three of the great funda- 
mentals of his religion — faith, hope and 
love. "Believe in God; believe also in 
me." "Take courage (or have hope) I 
have conquered the world." "This is my 
command, love one another as I have loved 
you." These three are the steadying and 
conquering elements in Christianity. Paul 
in summing up the elements of his religion 



116 Evenings With the Master 

which he believed would last throughout 
the ages names these three, "Now abideth 
faith, hope, and love." 

' ' Believe in God. ' ' This is one of Jesus ' 
greatest demands. I think the world has 
been exceptionally brave in the past few 
years in the face of great difficulties. We 
have tried to say to one another, "let not 
your hearts be troubled, things will work 
out for the best." But in spite of vic- 
tory things have not worked out for the 
best, and hearts which looked with such 
passionate longing for the close of the war 
are still troubled. We are coming to see 
that Jesus was right. Faith in God is the 
only thing that can cure troubled hearts. 
We need to believe that God is still in his 
heaven; that the God who has heard the 
cry of nations and who has made himself 
felt in all the great moral and social revo- 
lutions of history is still at work. If we 
believe that the God of Paul, of Savona- 
rola, of Luther, of Knox, of Wesley, of 
Washington, and of Lincoln — the God who 
guided that little ship across the wild 
Atlantic and made possible the establish- 
ment of a great nation on this continent, 
has lost his power to guide men and na- 
tions and through them work out his 
purposes for the world, then well might 



An Evening Before His Death 117 

our hearts be troubled. But if we be- 
lieve in a living God who is working today, 
and that there is not a problem before 
lis which he does not understand nor an 
evil over which he is not master, our 
troubled hearts will be calmed and we will 
face the future with courage. 

"Believe also in me." A vital faith in 
Jesus Christ is also necessary if we would 
have untroubled hearts. The tremendous 
courage and poise of the men who did the 
fighting in the world war may be accounted 
for in various ways, but a careful reading 
of the testimonies which came from the 
front convince us that a simple faith in Je- 
sus Christ was one of the great factors in- 
volved. He was known as the Comrade in 
White. Before men went over the top they 
often appealed to him. The picture of 
Donald Hankey kneeling with his company 
in prayer just before he went over the top 
for the last time, is a picture of faith 
which will never fade. In the hospitals, 
through long, weary days and nights of 
pain and weakness, thousands of New Tes- 
taments were read from cover to cover, 
and into thousands of hearts faith in Jesus 
Christ came as a reality and a great steady- 
ing power, 



118 Evenings With the Master 

One of the men who heard Jesus speak 
on this last night says towards the close 
of a long and active life in his service, 
' ' Our faith, that is the conquest which con- 
quers the world. Who is the world's con- 
queror but he who believes that Jesus is 
the Son of God." The world needs a vital 
faith in this living Christ who has been 
marching across the earth, breaking em- 
pires and kingdoms founded upon selfish- 
ness and greed into pieces, and in the blood 
of freedom-loving peoples laying broad and 
deep the foundations of his everlasting 
kingdom. In his latest book, "The Eeli- 
gious Basis of a Better World Order," Jo- 
seph Fort Newton says, "If there is one 
thing that our troubled age needs today it 
is a heart-shaking and world-changing con- 
viction, such as that which grasped the 
crumbling classic world and reshaped it. 
Speaking of that long-vanished world 
Mommsen said on the closing page of his 
History, 'The world was growing old, and 
not even Caesar could make it young 
again.' Yet what Caesar was unable to do, 
Christ did. Into an age spiritually sad. 
morally decaying and utterly weary — an 
age, if not hopeless, at least unhopeful — he 
made his advent, bringing new life, new 
ideas, new influences, new expectations, 



An Evening Before His Death 119 

and quickening the human soul in a new 
•fashion. It was like the coming of spring 
after a long winter, like the dawn after a 
dark night * * * Surely here is a creative 
force of faith, and 'a deep power of joy,' 
which we need in a world shattered by war 
and threatened by chaos. ' ' 

' ' Take courage, for I have conquered the 
world/ ' These words had very little 
meaning for the disciples on that night 
w T hen the Master told them he was going 
away. But in the light of what happened 
within the next few days they became full 
of meaning. Filled with this hope, after 
the resurrection they went forth to conquer 
their world for Christ. Paul in one of his 
letters speaks of those "having no hope 
and without God in the world.' ' But he 
continues, "now in Christ Jesus * * * ". 
When Christ came forth from the tomb he 
brought new and everlasting hope to the 
human race. In one of his fine sermons 
Dr. J. H. Jowett speaks of the three-fold 
hope which Jesus brought into the life and 
experience of men. ' i Hope in the perfecti- 
bility of self; hope in the instrumentality 
of all things for good to those who love 
God; and hope in personal immortality.' ' 

When the fires of the soul have burned 
very low, and we feel hopelessly lost in our 



120 Evenings With the Master 

own sins, Christ comes to tell us that it is 
possible for us to become new creations in 
him. He comes to the soul that is torn or 
distracted by trouble or calamity, the soul 
that is lonely for ' ' the touch of a vanished 
hand and the sound of a voice that is still, " 
and he makes that soul see that all God's 
plans and purposes are for the best. He 
comes to his disciples in an hour when they 
are fighting with their backs to the wall in 
the midst of a " sinful and perverse gener- 
ation " which is completely enamoured with 
the things of the world, and he says ' ' Fight 
on, for the Conqueror of the world is on 
your side." Then, Christ comes in a day 
of wide-spread death to kindle the hope of 
personal immortality in hearts where it 
has almost ceased to exist. "He hath be- 
gotten us again unto a living hope. * * * 
Because I live ye shall live also. * * * He 
that believeth on me shall never die." 
What a hope! They are sleeping yonder 
in France, the boys of our hearts, our 
homes, our churches and our busy ways. 
But they are not dead ! Their lives are not 
lost ! Oh, the blessed hope of immortality 
today! Christ comes, the Comrade in 
White to walk by us in the sad way and 
speak this glad message to our troubled 
hearts. 



An Evening Before His Death 121 

' ' This is my command, love one another 
as I have loved you." The philosophy 
back of these words upset the ancient 
world, and they offer the only solution for 
the most complex problems of our modern 
society. For long months men looked al- 
most in vain for some manifestation of the 
spirit of love in human relationships. 
Brute force has had a chance to demon- 
strate his wares before the world on a new 
and larger scale than ever before. It has 
been said that the man of our western civ- 
ilization is a fighting pagan, and out of the 
wars with which he has devastated the 
earth have come ill-will and hatred which 
have made life a hell for so many people. 
Always, and everywhere, these two arch- 
enemies of humanity have followed in the 
trail of brute force, standing at the gate- 
way of happiness and peace and challeng- 
ing man's right to enter in. Every day 
some new and terrible fact is helping to 
tear off the mask from the face of war and 
we are beginning to see at its true value, 
this hideous monster which we have been 
worshiping. What can heal the hurts of a 
world that has been under the sway of 
brute force for so long? Nothing short of 
that love which was born in the heart of 
the Father, and which was revealed in the 



122 Evenmgs With the Master 

life and death of his Son. The solution of 
every problem that confronts the race to- 
day waits upon the enthronement of Chris- 
tian love in the hearts of men and nations. 

Love is the only hope of salvation, both 
personal and racial. The final basis of any 
personal fellowship of the soul with God is 
a personal love " which becomes a creative 
and co-operative power and motive in the 
work of incarnating Christlike qualities of 
character * * # He who loves is one with 
God. ' ' This Christian love, which is the re- 
generating factor in the individual life, 
finds its highest expression in a desire to 
see the spirit of love enthroned in all the 
relationships of life. Thus, Christian love, 
and the type of life which it creates is the 
essential and primary condition of all per- 
manent moral and social reform. The acid 
test of Christian love is in its social rela- 
tionships. "If any man say, I love God, 
and hateth his brother, he is a liar; for he 
that loveth not his brother whom he hath 
seen, cannot love God whom he hath not 
seen." 

There are many evidences that the bet- 
ter day, the day of love, is dawning. The 
editor of a great trade journal says, "Hu- 
man management of the affairs of the uni- 
verse is failing. Without divine interven 



An Evening Before His Death 123 

tion, the world and its people will plunge 
into chaos. America is rent asunder by the 
spirit of defiance of law and order. There 
appears to be no man big enough in this 
land to stay the rising tide of disaster. God 
alone can save." The most ardent expo- 
nents of materialistic philosophy and brute 
force are revising their creeds. Men who 
have ushered God to the edge of the uni- 
verse and dismissed Him from their think- 
ing are coming back to a theistic interpre- 
tation of life. Slowly but surely the world 
is turning to love as the mightiest recon- 
structive force known to man. The profes- 
sor of Sociology in a great university is 
forced to the conclusion in a recent book, 
that the naturalistic principles and meth- 
ods which have been tried are wholly in- 
adequate to meet the present social situa- 
tion. 

• ' These principles and methods, ' J he as- 
serts "existed prior to Christ's coming and 
have operated from the earliest times, and 
yet they have been helpless to remedy the 
blemishes of civilization. The moral mo- 
tive power essential to achieve the highest 
and best forms of civilized life is not a 
product of mechanical laws, but it has a 
divine origin * * * . A humanitarian al- 
truism cannot be substituted for the divine 



124 Evenings With the Master 

motive in social service * * * . Christi- 
anity is the only power that can restore the 
broken altars of human life and bring back 
the world to its true constitution and 
change it into the Kingdom of God on 
earth wherein the human instinct for God 
and the passion for brotherhood will be- 
come the inward spiritual power to real- 
ize self-attainments and to refashion so- 
cial life in harmony with the divine ideal. ' ' 

Christian love is the most universal, per- 
sistent and vital force in human society. 
It is the only leaven that is working in the 
lives of nations to turn them from the wor- 
ship of brute force toward a better civiliza- 
tion. It is the only salt that is applying it- 
self to the rotting places of earth with a 
saving effect, and it is the only light that is 
shining in the darkness of our present night 
of confusion guiding men and nations to- 
ward the dawn of the perfect day. 

"Now abideth faith, hope and love, but 
the greatest of these is love." Nowhere in 
literature is the struggle between brute 
force and love given a more vivid setting 
than in the "Musician's Tale" in Longfel- 
low's "Tales of a Wayside Inn." The 
Challenge of Thor, the War God, sounds 
strangely like a certain philosophy which 
was very popular a few years ago. 



An Evening Before His Death 125 

Force rules the world still, 
Has ruled it, shall rule it ; 
Meekness is weakness, 
Strength is triumphant, 
Over the whole earth 
Still it is Thor's day! 

Thou art a God too, 
Galilean! 

And thus single-handed 
Unto the combat, 
Gauntlet or gospel, 
Here I defy thee. 

And the voice which the Nun of Nidaros 
hears toward the end of the long conflict 
between King Olaf and Thor, 

The voice of a stranger 
It seemed as she listened, 
Of one who answered, 
Beseeching, imploring, 
A cry from a-f ar off 
She could not distinguish. 

resembles the voice which the church of 
Jesus Christ is hearing today. It was 

The voice of Saint John, 
The beloved disciple, 
Who wandered and waited 
The Master's appearance. 
Alone in the darkness, 
Unsheltered and friendless— 



126 Evenings With the Master 

speaking the deathless challenge of Chris- 
tianity to brute force : 

It is accepted 

The angry defiance, 

The challenge of battle! 

It is accepted, 

But not with the weapons 

Of war that thou wieldest ! 

Cross against corselet, 

Love against hatred, 

Peace-cry for war-cry! 

Patience is powerful; 

He that o'ercometh 

Hath power o'er the nations! 



Stronger than steel 

Is the sword of the Spirit ; 

Swifter than arrows 

The light of the truth is, 

Greater than anger 

Is love that subdueth! 

Thou art a phantom, 
A shape of the sea-mist, 
A shape of the brumal 
Rain, and the darkness 
Fearful and formless; 
Day dawns and thou art not ! 



An Evening Before His Death 127 

The dawn is not distant, 
Nor is the night starless; 
Love is eternal! 
God is still God, and 
His faith shall not fail us ; 
Christ is eternal! 

In the interlude as a " strain of music 
closes the tale" the voice of the Theologian 
is heard, 

Thank God * * * 

The reign of violence is dead, 

Or dying surely from the world; 

While love triumphant reigns instead. 

And in a brighter sky o'erhead 

His blessed banners are unfurled. 

These are the things which abide. These 
the fundamental values, the great con- 
quering forces of Christianity. The faith 
that steadies men in time of trial; the 
hope that lights the way through dark- 
est nights; the love that makes men 
kin to God. In this evening hour may I 
commend to you that faith which can 
save your soul, that hope which can 
inspire you to noblest living, and that 
love which can bind your heart to the heart 
of the Father? 



AN EVENING WITH THE DISCI- 
PLES; AFTER HIS 
DEATH 



He pretended to be going further on, but they 
pressed him, saying, "Stay with us for it is get- 
ting towards evening and the day has now de- 
clined." So he went in to stay with them. — 
Luke 24:28-30. 

On the evening of that same day — the first day 
of the week — though the disciples had gathered 
within closed doors for fear of the Jews, Jesus 
entered and stood among them, saying, "Peace 
be with youV y —John 20:19-20. 



AN EVENING WITH THE DISCI- 
PLES; AFTER HIS 
DEATH 

The crucifixion was over. The body of 
Jesus had been placed in the costly tomb 
of Joseph in a beautiful garden. It was 
toward evening of the first day of the week 
when all Jerusalem was astir with the re- 
ports of the women that they had seen the 
risen Christ. Two of the disciples, who 
had evidently discredited the story of the 
women, were walking along a road to the 
little village of Emmaus. ' i They were con- 
versing about all the events, and during 
their conversation and discussion, Jesus 
himself approached and w r alked beside 
them, though they were prevented from 
recognizing him." 

Then follows the conversation in which, 
the disciples express their surprise that 
the stranger does not know what has been 
going on in the city, and in which Jesus 
tries to show them from their own scrip- 
tures that these things were to take place. 
When they approached the village to which 
they were going, Jesus "pretended to be 
going further on, but they pressed him, 

181 



132 Evenings With the Master 

saying, 'Stay with us, for it is getting to- 
ward evening and the day has now de- 
clined. ' So he went in to stay with them. 
And as he lay at the table with them he 
took the loaf, blessed it, brake it and 
handed it to them. Then their eyes were 
opened and they recognized him, but he 
vanished from their sight. " "On the 
evening of that same day — the first day of 
the week — though the disciples had gath- 
ered within closed doors for fear of the 
Jews, Jesus entered and stood among them, 
saying, 'Peace be with you!' " 

The first evening after the resurrection 
was spent in bringing peace to the trou- 
bled hearts and minds of the disciples. It 
must have been a wonderful experience af- 
ter all they had just passed through, to 
see the risen Lord and to have visible proof 
that he had conquered death. The ways in 
which Jesus appeared to his discouraged 
disciples on the first evening of his risen 
life, are suggestive of two lessons which 
are greatly needed in this age. To those 
who walked alone with their disappoint- 
ment, he came as the "unrecognized 
Christ" to open their eyes to the truth. 
To those who had locked and barred the 
doors of the room because of sorrow and 



An Evening After His Death 133 

fear, he came as the invisible, unavoidable 
Christ to speak peace to their souls. 

In the beginning of his career when he 
stood in that vast throng which came to 
hear John the Baptist preach, Jesus was 
unrecognized. "In the midst of you" said 
John to the crowd, "there standeth one 
whom ye know not." Jesus must have 
been an interested hearer and spectator, 
and yet only the keen insight of John rec- 
ognized in him the future leader and Sav- 
iour of the people. A great preacher has 
called Jesus the "Unobserved Observer." 
As an unobserved observer he discovered 
many of his disciples. In answer to Nathan- 
ael's question, "How do you know me?" 
Jesus said, "When you were under the fig 
tree, before even Philip called you, I saw 
you." He saw Peter and John while they 
were yet fishers of fish and he called them 
to become fishers of men. And in a lonely 
taxgatherer in whom no one had ever dis- 
covered any characteristic of greatness, 
the unobserved observer saw the making of 
one of the most useful disciples. 

Wearied and tired from a long journey 
Jesus sat one day about the sixth hour by 
a well to rest while his disciples went into 
the city to buy food. And as he sat there 
he saw a woman from the city coming to 



134 Evenings With the Master 

draw water from the well. He saw the 
marks of sin upon her face. But he saw 
something more. This unobserved observer 
saw deep into her soul and discovered 
something which he knew would respond to 
a great appeal. Drawing her into a con- 
versation he drew from her soul a confes- 
sion of her sins and a desire to lead a bet- 
ter life. After a busy day Jesus sent his 
disciples away across the lake, while he 
went into the mountain to pray. But af- 
ter dark the winds swept across the little 
lake and churned it into a raging sea. In 
an hour when the disciples were almost 
lost, the unobserved observer had seen 
their peril and was not unmindful of their 
welfare. And this same unobserved obser- 
ver, knowing the sadness which must have 
filled the hearts of his disciples after his 
death, came to them to quell their fears 
and bring courage and hope to their souls. 
In the vast multitudes that throng the 
earth today Jesus is still the unobserved 
observer. He stands in our midst, for the 
most part unrecognized. But he is always 
near to help. The eyes of the Master may 
be resting upon some one here tonight 
whom he expects to call into a great serv- 
ice in his kingdom. He is sitting by the 
waysides of earth, and in ways unknown to 



An Evening After His Death 135 

most of us, is calling men and women to a 
confession of their sins and a desire for a 
new life. Many times when we are almost 
lost in the midst of a terrific storm of 
doubt, or temptation, or passion, this same 
Master is not unmindful of our condition 
and he comes to save. And then, when we 
have seen our hopes broken and shattered 
at our feet; when we have given up and 
have turned to walk in the same old paths; 
at the close of the day of hope when dark- 
ness and gloom have settled down upon our 
lonely souls, he comes to walk by us in the 
way, to abide with us and open our eyes 
that we may get a new vision and a new 
grip on life. 

"Though the disciples had gathered 
within closed doors for fear of the Jews, 
Jesus entered and stood among them * * * ' ' 
Speaking of this passage W. J. Dawson 
says, "Henceforth he was to fill all things. 
He was to take possession of the world. 
He was to glide with the softness and po- 
tency of light into the darkest huts where 
poor men lay, into the secret chambers of 
the rich man's palace, and into the sealed 
shrines of pagan temples. He was to be 
the ever-living, ever-present, unavoidable 
Christ, the Christ whom we meet every- 
Avhere today fulfilling his last great prom- 



136 Evenings With the Master 

ise — 'Lo I am with you always, even unto 
the end of the world.' " Around the 
thought of the " Unavoidable Christ' ' Dr. 
Dawson built one of the most powerful 
evangelistic sermons ever preached in 
America. It is one of the most command- 
ing and challenging thoughts in the whole 
range of gospel preaching. 

People as a rule are not opposed to the 
religion of Jesus Christ; most of them wish 
it well. But they are indifferent, terribly 
indifferent ; and many of them have decid- 
ed to ignore it. It has been months, per- 
haps years, since many good and respecta- 
ble people in this city have attended 
church. They do not object if others go to 
church, but they want to be let alone to 
live their own selfish lives without having 
their conscience bothered by the demands 
of the messenger of the Living Christ. 
Others may live by the Golden Rule if they 
desire, but these people who do not go to 
church want to be left alone to treat their 
neighbors as they like. Others may think 
of Christ's law of love and try to prac- 
tice it in their business, but these folks 
who are ignoring the church want to be 
free to drive just as hard and unscrupu- 
lous business bargains as they please. Oth- 
ers may recognize the Christian principles 



An Evening After His Death 137 

of brotherhood and the value of the indi- 
vidual in dealing with their help in the 
store, the home or in the factory if they 
wish, but those who do not want to be both- 
ered with the message of the church will 
deal with their help in any way they please. 
Now this class in modern society which has 
decided to ignore the church, has failed to 
reckon with one fact of tremendous impor- 
tance. When men ignore the church and 
its message they are ignoring the Living 
Christ, and he will not be ignored ! He is 
the unavoidable Christ. When all these 
relationships of life have been declared 
outside the power and influence of his mes- 
sage, "the doors being shut and locked," 
then comes Jesus and stands in the midst. 
And he must be reckoned with. No man, 
however much he may ignore the church, 
can avoid this invisible Presence in the 
life of the world, and his influence upon 
every relationship of life. 

There is one question which can never be 
avoided by men or nations, "What then, 
shall I do with Jesus who is called 
Christ ?" He is the most compelling and 
unique personality in history, and no man 
can be a fundamental thinker who tries to 
avoid giving him a definite place in his 
own life and the life of society. No man 



138 Evenings With the Master 

can be in true sympathy with his fellow- 
men who at heart evades the classification 
of underlying influences which swerve hu- 
man life toward good or ill. No man can 
leave this grand challenge untouched and 
retain the full measure of his self respect. 
Through periods of inquiry and doubt, if 
he is an honest thinker, he may hold funda- 
mentals in the background and seek more 
light. But his thought and his life can nev- 
er be positive and constructive until he has 
established right relations to such ques- 
tions as this. "Time inexorably gathers 
like to like, urges final issues, eliminates 
middle ground, and arranges all forces on 
one side or the other. And so moves the 
cosmic vortex which draws all human 
thoughts to final issue, and challenges all 
mankind to place or displace the divine 
man who is called Jesus Christ." 

The question of placing Jesus Christ was 
uppermost in the minds of a good many 
people during the closing days of his min- 
istry. He had caused considerable disturb- 
ance among those in authority because of 
his popularity with the crowds. The 
events of the last week center around three 
groups who were trying to get rid of him. 
They did not want to place him in their 
systems, so they sought to displace him. 



An Evening After His Death 139 

He was disturbing the comfortable hypoc- 
risy of the Pharisees; he had destroyed 
some of the vested interests of the Sad- 
ducees, and he was breeding discontent 
among the people in such a way as to 
threaten the power of the political repre- 
sentatives of Kome. The first party to 
definitely decide upon the death of Jesus 
was the Sadducees. They controlled the 
temple, and when Jesus broke up the trade 
from which the priests derived their in- 
come, he sealed his doom in the eyes of 
Caiaphas. This leader knew what he 
wanted to do. In the presence of those 
avIio hesitated he said, "Ye know nothing 
at all! The one point of view for us to 
have is our own interests. Let us have 
that clearly understood * * *. This man 
must die ! Never mind about his miracles, 
or his teaching, or his beautiful character. 
His life is a perpetual danger to our vested 
interests, our incomes. I vote for death!" 
At the hands of the political representa- 
tives Jesus fared no better. Because he 
desired the favor of the crowd Pilate re- 
leased him into the hands of the angry 
mob. This throws Jesus into the hands of 
the Pharisees, who were the real leaders of 
the mob, and at their hands he received no 
mercy. All the wrath and vengeance which 



140 Evenings With the Master 

had been brewing in their wicked hearts, 
was allowed to burst forth in its fury and 
vent itself upon his innocent and helpless 
head. All the insults they could think of 
were heaped upon him, and finally as a re- 
sult of their hellish desires and in the 
midst of their fiendish joy they saw him 
hanging upon the cross. 

They thought it was the end of this trou- 
blesome character known as Jesus of Naz- 
areth. But it was only the beginning of 
the end of these groups of men who had 
conspired together to murder the Son of 
God. In a few years all of those vested in- 
terests in the Temple which the priests 
were so anxious to guard went up in the 
smoke and flames of the burning walls. 
Of those men who were led on by the mad- 
dened Pharisees to murder, and who cried 
out, "Let his blood be upon our heads and 
the heads of our children," some lived to 
be pierced to death by the Eoman spear, 
and the children of others had their brains 
dashed out against the walls of the city 
when Titus and his conquering hosts swept 
all before them and left the streets running 
red with the blood of the Chosen People. 
And the mighty empire for whose power 
Pilate and Herod were so jealous is now 
but a memory, and lies buried in the majes- 



An Evening After His Death 141 

tic ruins of its once mighty cities. These 
men faced the problem of placing Jesus 
Christ. They killed him and thought they 
were done with him. But he came forth 
from the tomb to be the conqueror of them 
all. 

The sins which crucified Jesus are the 
sins which keep him from holding the larg- 
est place in the life of modern society. 
There has never been such a cry for the 
death of the living Christ as there is today 
from certain quarters, because there is a 
feeling abroad in the world that he holds 
the only key that can unlock the problems 
of the nations. But in the unlocking of 
these doors the same interests which con- 
spired to kill the Jesus of history, know 
that their doom is sealed. The vested in- 
terests would crucify Jesus today because 
they see in his teaching the approaching 
doom of selfishness, greed, and industrial 
and commercial despotism. The Phari- 
sees, leaders of the established order of 
things in the church, would crucify Jesus 
because they see in his popularity with the 
masses outside the church where his social 
teachings have been discovered, the begin- 
ning of a movement which will dethrone 
some of them, and make the church a great 
democratic organization. Politicians des- 



142 Evenings With the Master 

pise the Living Christ and would crucify 
him, because the people are beginning to 
discern through his clear moral teachings, 
that a great deal of what has passed in the 
world as statesmanship, is only the 
selfish schemes of selfish men. Jesus 
Christ is the most disturbing factor in 
modern society. He cannot be avoided. He 
must either be placed or displaced, and 
those who would displace him by killing 
him, will meet the same fate as his early 
enemies. 

"What will you do with Jesus?" is a 
personal question. We are intensely in- 
terested in the place which the vested in- 
terests of our day will give to Jesus. We 
are also interested in the place he is given 
in the plans of the politicians of the earth. 
But for us just now the supreme question 
is a personal one. What are we as individ- 
uals to do with Jesus ; what place shall we 
give him in our lives? In the answer to 
this question is wrapped up the answer to 
these others. For what the various inter- 
ests of society do with Jesus is decided by 
what the individual units which compose 
those interests have done with him. Jesus 
is on trial in your soul and the final judg- 
ment of his case rests with you. This is 
the greatest question you will ever face. 



An Evening After His Death 143 

It is the question which is heard in every 
modern question of importance. You can- 
not enter into any phase of life without en- 
countering it. It is the question, which, 
when answered right will answer every oth- 
er important question in your life. It is 
the question I bring to you tonight from 
the heart of God. And most important, it 
is a question you must decide tonight 
whether you want to or not. If you are 
not for Jesus you are against him. We 
have his words for that. There is no neu- 
tral ground. You cannot avoid an answer. 
"The doors being shut" he stands in your 
midst, and this living, invisible, all-con- 
quering Presence, will not depart until you 
have definitely accepted him or rejected 
him as your Lord: At this evening hour 
he comes to be your Friend and Saviour. 
Will you not bid him tarry with you, to be- 
come the great Companion of your soul? 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: July 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township PA 16066 
(724) 779-211^ 



